Dear Editor,

Creative is our default state of being — we ooze the stuff. It is a virtual guarantee that any person you pass on East Street, King Street, Orange Street, Church Street, or any other, has talent as a singer, DJ, dancer, craft maker, visual artist of some sort, writer of some sort, or something! — creativity is not our problem.

But turning that creativity into sustainable success? That’s where we continue to fall short. Too many artistes believe talent alone will carry them; that making great art is enough; that someone, somewhere, will magically discover them and handle the business while they remain locked in their creative bubble.

But the world has changed. The industry has changed. And in this era the artistes who only want to create, who avoid the business side of their craft, who bury their heads in the sand and hope for the best will not make it. Period.

And this is not just an opinion. This is a fact — history, nature, and the industry itself have already written the playbook: evolve or die.

Take the peppered moth in England for instance. Once primarily light-coloured to blend in with lichen-covered trees, the rise of industrial pollution darkened its environment, making it an easy target for predators. The moths that didn’t adapt? They disappeared. But a darker mutation emerged — better suited for survival — and soon became the dominant variant.

Or take the elephants. Due to relentless poaching, some populations have evolved to be born without tusks, a trait that was once rare but has now become an advantage. This wasn’t a conscious decision — it was survival. Meanwhile, the dodo, which failed to adapt to new predators introduced by human colonisation, is now a mere historical footnote.

The lesson? The environment changes, and those who do not adjust get left behind.

The music industry has changed. The business of art has changed. The way success is built has changed. Yet many artistes operate as if the old rules still apply — assuming talent alone will carry them, and that belief has them on a direct path to irrelevance.

There is an outdated but persistent notion that business and creativity cannot coexist. That a ‘real artiste’ should focus on his/her craft and leave everything else to managers, labels, or fate, and that the pursuit of financial sustainability somehow taints artistic integrity. This thinking is not only antiquated, it is dangerous.

Artistes today must oscillate between two modes: the passionate creator and the strategic business operator — not in a way that dilutes their art, but in a way that ensures it reaches the audiences it (de)serves while sustaining the life of the artiste.

This doesn’t mean artistes must become marketing experts or an accountants overnight. But it does mean developing an understanding of:

• how to capitalise on all available monetisation opportunities (of which there are many);

• how to build a brand that embodies their perspective and extends beyond the music or art itself; and

• how to position themselves and develop impactful campaigns around projects to promote their work and expand their reach.

The ones who embrace this evolution will thrive. The ones who resist it will, in time, become relics of an era that no longer exists.

One of the biggest barriers to this mindset shift is the idea that seeking financial success in art is ‘selling out’. Many artistes claim that they create “for the love” and not for the money. But, reality check: Money is energy.

When artistes pour their life force into their work — their soul, their experiences, their ideas, their pain, their joy — they are giving energy to the world. And in any balanced system, energy must flow both ways. The resistance to being compensated for art is an internalised myth that must die. If an artiste’s work has value, it should sustain him/her, not because money is the primary goal, but because it allows them to keep creating, on their own terms, without struggling to survive.

If a masterpiece is created in silence with no means of distribution and the artiste is left unable to fund the next project, what was the point?

The industry will not wait for artistes to catch up. It will move forward, with or without them. This is not a call for artistes to abandon their craft in favour of commerce. It is a call for them to see the full picture, to respect both the art and the business and ensure that what they create lives, moves, and sustains.

Those who embrace this evolution will be the ones who last. And those who refuse? They will be remembered the way we remember the dodo.

Tomekha McCarthy

thebrandmint.tm@gmail.com