Mooroo says no to unpaid work

KARACHI: It’s a known fact that artists are often asked to work for free. Graphic designers, singers, photographers, filmmakers and writers often complain that they get asked to provide their art for free, in return for ‘exposure’.

Clearly artists have had enough because popular singer and digital content creator, Mooroo took to Twitter to join a trending hashtag, #SayNoToUnpaidWork.

Speaking to Cutacut, Mooroo elaborated on the thought further: “People still ask me to do things for free. At one time, they used to ask a lot but now, they ask a little less.”

Why are artists expected to work for free, we wondered. “I suppose it comes from the value our society attaches to an artist. Artists aren’t valued in this particular society as much. But I think if an artist values himself internally, then it projects outwards and that results in creating value for themselves within the community or the business circle they exist in. That’s a really important thing for an artist to work on. In general, businessmen are just wanting to get more value out of everything; that’s just being a good, shrewd businessman. And since society tells artists that their work is of no value, they end up believing that. I guess all of these things kind of play a role,” he concluded.