I remember some 20-30 years ago you would sometimes hear about an artist (usually musician, or a group thereof) being sellouts, or having sold out. This of course in a pejorative way, as this was the most heinous of crimes an artist could ever commit against their fan base.

However, I can’t recall having heard this term for at least a couple of decades. Has the term been replaced with something else? Is it more accepted? Or is it simply so hard to make it nowadays that the concept of “selling out” is basically just synonymous with making a living?

Are there any modern examples of this and I simply missed the online chatter about it?

  • flamingo_pinyata@sopuli.xyz
    28·
    8 hours ago

    True, it’s not really a thing any more. Two reasons I’d say:

    • If you want to make a nice living by being distributed by a label “selling out” is mandatory
    • Anti-establishment musicians have a cheap distribution method in the form of internet. If they don’t care about making money, they just offer it for download directly to their fans

    That being said, the term is still used in the open source software community quite a lot.