I'm glad this thread came up, since it opened the dialogue on spec work.
I'm generally against spec work, and the "graphic design competition" idea generally makes me ill at ease, especially when it is proposed by another artist—in that case, it is simply one artist devaluing the work of another artist. That said, I did enter the Nonelectronics Sticker Design Contest, but it was my choice to do that even though I was well aware that it was spec work as well as a grey area for my own ethics.
That said, its a matter of both principals and of personal investment. I churned out 4 sticker designs in Illustrator using design elements left over from earlier work, and it didn't take me that long. However, I'm an exceptionally mediocre musician, and I can't imagine ever finishing a 10 minute long composition. That is an opus by my standards. I couldn't fathom letting the rights to that go for $100 and a slap on the back.
…we don't know yet how we might use the song… but we might come up with other uses of it in the future.
You could always change your terms before you and the hypothetical artist(s) enter a legal agreement so that they retain their rights and you license the song at an affordably low royalty rate. How badly do you think your game will fail? Bad enough that you can't afford 5% or 10% royalties on usage of the song in your marketing? That doesn't sound like a lot of faith in your product.
Last edited by Telerophon (Sep 10, 2012 4:49 pm)