The more you became known, the more or better paid jobs you had available and that made your life easier. So at least the goal was to build a network and have so many allies that it worked.
Today it is not necessarily necessary to network a lot and to achieve a bunch of acquaintances among the artistic directors or someone in the Ministry of Culture. Today it is enough if you can show X subscribers on Instagram to use as a reference.
The decoupling of the usual way to get a job and the new opportunities to digitally drive yourself away open many new doors for artists, musicians and actors.
Spreeding around the globe!
If you have created a new work and want to spread it around the world, you can do that without any problems. During my Instagram time, my works were viewed mainly in Dubai and the USA. Finding out something like this alone is a huge gain for any artist.
Technology can simplify the way in which you sell your things and how you interact with the audience, the prerequisite is that you deal with it enough to really capitalize on it. After all, it’s not about fame, but about business.
It is also very good that you can get feedback very quickly whether the art,music or film is also relevant or desired. You always have to differentiate between people who have nothing better to do than leaving others negative comments and constructive criticism. Constructive criticism can make an artist improve regardless of the field. When the ego is out of the way.
Today it is strange that art does not compete directly with art on the internet. Art competes with everything else and the flood of information that is available and just a swipe or click away is enormous. Therefore, cute cat pictures are in competition with art and everything else that you can photograph or film.
Suddenly it is like in an arena where everything is in competition with everything and even the best and most beautiful works of art can be completely lost. Because you used the wrong hashtags or posted the picture at 3 a.m. on Monday.
Just pure luck?
Another phenomenon that occurs quite often is that one is exposed to the arbitrariness of algorithms, these evaluate the relevance of data at the edge of the number of people looking at it, the length of time they look at it, how they access this information and etc. Since these algorithms are changed at short intervals, what is in today may possibly be out again tomorrow. So there is more luck than understanding involved.
Basically, famous people would aptly describe the statement that they are not famous because they deserve it. Because they are special, they were lucky to be in the right place at the right time. Like an Instagram post with the right hashtags!