So Billie Eilish, a recording artist who makes millions with her creative work, has teamed up with Adobe, a multi-billion company, to bring us a contest where artists make merch designs for her for free, and only the winner gets paid. Sorry, a “prize”. And part of the “prize” is exposure.
Oh, and if you submit an entry, whether you win or not, you give them the right to use your work.
Contests like this are a scam. They’re exploitative. Always. They’re a way to get people to do work for free, and only pay the “winner”.
Billie Eilish makes music. She is a creative professional herself who makes money, a lot of money, with her art. She can afford to pay an artist to design her tour shirt. Adobe can afford to pay artists to do design work.
If she wants to give fans the opportunity to work for her - just invite portfolio submissions. Let artists send you work they’ve already done, pick one whose style you like, and hire them to make a design for you. Easy.
This, though? This is trying to use her fame to get people to work for her for free. This is trying to exploit her fans. Note how the key selling point they picked for the tweet isn’t the cash prize, it’s the exposure. This entire thing is based on the hope that people will be so excited to have their work officially featured by Billie Eilish that they’ll work for free just for the chance.
Don’t enter “art contests” like this. It’s not a contest, it’s a scam.
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