Do free webcomics hurt the industry?

oh for the love of-. I'm not tryna get into one of my usual socio-economic-capitalism-is-garbage rants, but the only "evil" ones are the massive corporations that suck the blood out of their artists to reap in absurd profits and give them pennies in return for pay. Free indie comics are not the problem.

Mmmm I think there's morsels of truth to the statement, but I think it's also very relative and on the subject of webcomics I don't think it's very accurate (and even on other topic areas it depends).

On paper I think it makes sense as like... an idealized economic principal. Theoretically if a good or service has an accepted standard rate, then most of the time people who price their product/service above that rate will have a hard time making sales, and those who under-price might see more sales because it's a good deal. But like the average should be the price that you're seeing most of the time. The problem comes when the quantity of people offering under-priced goods is so plentiful that the average consumer doesn't need to pay the average price, because there are always the under-priced options available. In that way the lower prices become the new average and anything above that will struggle. This can even trend far enough downwards that you see people overing goods and services for free just to try and establish themselves as noted in the OP, and that's overall bad for an industry because it crashes the perceived value. It takes a lot more work to try and raise that bar again if it's dropped that far than it does to lower it in the first place, as consumers will be reluctant to pay more for the same goods.

HOWEVER there are a few caveats. The first that's pretty widely applicable regardless of the subject matter is that there are just way too many individual people working in any established industry to feasibly corral all of them together to get on the same page about pricing. Even if a set average rate is decided upon by the key/major players, there will always be those that go out of their way to undercut a little bit to get an edge on the competition. Whether it be a lower average price, or periodic sales, or what have you. The above principal could possibly work in like... a closed and very controlled market, but in a free market it just won't. That's not how the human race works.

The other thing is that the principal strikes me as something that's mostly applicable to professional products and services, and not so much stuff that people make as a hobby or for fun. Like even if that were to be enforced in the professional realm, I don't think it would be reasonable to basically tell people "you either have to monetize that or you can't post it". If an artist or musician or writer or whoever wants to make things and share them for free, they can do so.

I think the place I've seen this talked about the most in the past (personally) has been on art forums when talking about art commission pricing? I've read word for word "don't under-price your work because it hurts the art community as a whole!" several times when looking into the subject. And to a degree it's true? Even then though there are several circumstantial factors that can play a part. 3 come to mind right away:

1.) It's not uncommon to see the radically lower prices being offered on products or services that are comparably lower quality than the "average". It's like you get what you pay for? People who need to try and shill their product or service but are still developing can't necessarily get the same rates and the veterans in their field, so they'll either get no sales at that price or need to lower it.

2.) Similarly, sometimes people slash prices out of desparation, if they need to make ends meet, or their store is going out of business and they need everything gone, or what have you. It's not ideal, but definitely understandable.

3.) Situations where you go down as low as "free" are also like... sometimes necessary evils for getting your foot in the door. Whether you're handing out free merch at a convention booth to get your product in people's hands, or posting a bunch of free illustrations to advertise your commission business, or working an unpaid internship to get your foot in the door at a company.

Alrighty so like looping back to webcomics... I think several of the above can apply, depending on the creator's situation. Maybe they're providing free content for fun or as a hobby, maybe it's because their skill level isn't high enough to garner payment on level with the pros, or maybe they're putting out high quality free work as a means to get their foot in the door? Regardless of the situation I don't feel like it's particularly detrimental to the industry at large. Especially one still as particularly niche as webcomics in general. (I feel like print comics are a different animal and this post is long enough so I'll call it good there lol)

To your point about underpricing and becoming the new average, this makes sense for goods and services that are generally competing with each other but it doesn't really make sense for comic books. We're not really competing with each other. If anything, we're here to help each other. I don't know a single comic book fan that says they will read Dragon Ball and ONLY Dragon Ball. We like multiple things and our choice to support a comic comes from whether or not we like the story or art, not if it's priced better. If a comic is priced horrendously, then it will be pirated. The only storytelling medium that really has competition in it is video games, and it's not really even the games that compete for the same reasons as above. It's the consoles that compete.

I don't think it is. I think being able to read webcomics online for free helps builds a fanbase for artist and if the webcomic is popular enough, people would buy books & other merch from the artists. I've been buying collected trades (via Kickstarter) of webcomics that I've enjoy reading like Trying Human and Ava's Demon.

I do think that as an industry, in general, artists need to be charging just a hell ton more. The rate for freelance illustration has not really risen although the cost of living absolutely has. But, the quote is still incorrect--"free art" on the internet isn't to blame for this--the blame goes to companies trying to pay artists as little as possible and taking as long as they can to do it. We really need some sort of union omg.

But, when it comes to webcomics or youtube musicians--that isn't actually "free." We get ad revenue, youtubers get the possibility of sponserships for their videos. You attract people to your patreons. It's all a business, and money is still absolutely involved, you just get paid at a different time than standard publishing. Webcomics is an investment that artists make. A thing that might make money in the future, if you play your cards right. Same with music youtubers.

I got into comics thanks to webcomics. Webcomics such as 8-bit Theater, Dinosaur Comics, and Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal helped me love the art form of free comics on the web, and that eventually led to me reading all sorts of comic work both online and on paper.

Free art does not hurt industries. It helps industries thrive.

This is the first time I have seen an opinion like this. IMO, releasing your work for free is not hurting the industry. If anything, I see people moving to paid work once they have the confidence to switch for releasing their work from free to paid.

I think it call comes down to a person's confidence in their skills. Not everyone has a competitive drive and one person may simply just want to post their work for free without that stress. Personally, I wouldn't mind being paid but I also know going the paid work does take a damper at times from meeting with demands and expectations.

It´s 2020, kids read comics online and stream music. There is still a way to make money, you have to find out what you can offer that the other creators can´t offer and what the consumer wants to spend money on. You can´t change the market or how the internet works. I´m a musician and an illustrator. I grew up with the dream to live on selling vinyl records and comic books. Nobody buys that today, I can complain or be angry about it but that doesn´t change anything but my own mood or I can adapt to the market

I believe no~ you can see Manga, Tapas, webtoon and other webcomic platforms, they have free series to read but people are still willing to pay for featured/premium comics because there's still audience who really supports their favorite creators~ if free webcomics hurts the industry then there should be no featured/premium comics in the 1st place~

Free webcomics do NOT hurt the industry, the industry, as many of other posters have said, hurts itself with such a point of view.

I know of people who got into comics/mangas because of their artist friends. I have several friends who would not have dreamed of ever touching such a thing as a manga, then bought my little self-published indie-comic and are now manga and comic readers to the core.
I know of people who grew up together and motivated each other to eventually draw and publish their own comic (also my friend circle)
I know people, who have joined bigger publishers and about the ~2$ you get for delivering one page you spent 2 days on. (minus taxes).

Big Comic publishers / the comic industry is the one which underprices to the point, an artist has to work to exhaustion to make ends meet.
I'd rather support indie artists any day via ko-fi and patreon than buy an industry comic, because I know that the money I spend on supporting a person actually reaches that person almost completely (minus patreon/paypal fees, of course). I choose, which story I support, I follow "my" creator, have seen their struggles and their little anecdotes about their characters. I can see the person "behind" the story I love and this gives me as a consumer a completely different viewpoint. It makes those creators more "human" to me =)

I also think, that the "MONEYMONEYMONEY" attitude of the industry will eventually be the point which breaks it. The meddling in otherwise beautiful and creative stories by a 3rd party to the point they became bland and unoriginal and the unhealthy contracts artists sometimes sign... welp, let's just say that I think that there need to be some changes in the industry instead of blaming indie artists for their "free content".

I agree. Comics, or just stories in any medium in general, are for the most part, really creative. They have heart. But corporations and the industry tend to break that creativity and heart down and strip it away when their soul purpose is , “We want money!” I never thought of the industry itself being the issue, but now that everyone’s saying it, I see it.

This isn't a very good explanation of this. Most quality creators make money through other means such as crowdfunding websites like Patreon and Ko Fi and such. So the products aren't free. They're being paid for by the people supporting the creator as well as ads. Next, you can't do anything with properties owned by certain people or companies. You want to read a story about Wolverine then you're going to have to get it from Marvel. Period. Last is just a stamp of quality. There is a lot of stuff out there. Some good, some bad. And there is a much wider divide for free on the internet. If you're buying a comic, you're buying something that has someone that works full time in the field working on it and performing to a professional quality of work with both the writing and art.

I would also like to add that these two mediums are entirely different and comparing them isn't really fair. The things you can do, the way you read it etc,.. I wouldn't read "They Called Us Enemies" or "The Best We Could Do" as a webcomic. Free or not. They don't work in a page release structure. And though some people might buy a book of Cassandra Comics, they function best in a spreadable and meme-able format that can be shared.

I think free stuff never hurts the industry, I'd rather ask what is THE industry, outpricing IS a tactic and if you can afford to delive cheaper AND make ends meet then bravo. If one cant compete with this then it's the persons own fault, it should move back into a hobby. Many people want ot be artists, but only a few can the truly succesfull, so it's more a question of "is the industry filled with to many 'missinvestions'?" I'd say maybe. There are a few people who fail and have to reinvent themself entirely or go into another industry to make ends meet, but this was a calculated risk and if there's limited money avaible in the market, then we can only fight against each other... If your trying to live from it.

This is why I hope everybody here has a backup plan. The comic industry is especially volatile because there's already a massive backlog of works and a constant shift of trends. Nobody should bet on internet fame to make a living. Also like many people already said most 'professional' comic companies that are failing are just failiing because they failed to catch the zeitgeist or fail to distribute it. For example in case of manga, which are OVERPRICED btw.

If your not trying to make money, then free works are especially great. This is a giant community, an organism of infinite creativity and this we should cherish.

NOTE: the 'you' is just a fictiscious character and only here to help me demonstrate my opinion. I'm not argueing against or for something and just saying my opinion