According to Information on Artists III, a 2004 study of San Francisco Bay area artists from a broad array of disciplines, 69% of artists state that the production of their art has been affected by advances in technology. Electronic media are used by 53% of artists in creating their work.

Do Artists Use the Internet to Promote Their Art Work?

The Internet appears to be important to most Bay area artists in promoting their work. Over half of the artists surveyed (58%) use the Internet to market their art. The majority (73%) of those marketing their art over the Internet also disseminate their work online.

How Do Artists Feel About Their Work Being Downloaded for Free?

Nearly one third (31%) of artists surveyed said that the issue of people downloading their work without paying was not applicable to them. Although we can not break out the specific artistic disciplines reliably due to the small numbers of artists in any one category, the distribution of artists who said that the issue of unpaid downloading was not applicable to them contained a higher proportion of artists in the fields of theater, film, architecture, and crafts and a lower proportion of artists in the fields of music, painting/drawing, and photography.

Artists who expressed opinions on free downloads of their work were highly divided on the issue; 21% of artists said they should be paid, 16% objected, 18% said they do not mind, and 18% liked the exposure. A few artists gave combined responses such as "I do not mind; I like the exposure," and "I object; I should be paid." A very small percentage (7%) of artists stated that they had no opinion on the matter.