Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Anime is a $25B industry that pays its animators pennies

hitregbroke.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 365 posts

Re: Anime is a $25B industry that pays its animators pennies

#81

Post by Osmose »

sillysaurusx wrote: post #6

Then by definition, that’s what their time is worth. It should alarm animators that they’re paid so little. It alarmed me as a gamedev when I saw how much webdevs earned in comparison. It’s partly why I left, and I was much happier for it. No amount of legislation or shame articles will change the reality that market forces have profound effects, and these effects are difficult to break. Unions try. To my knowledge,…

Code for America's union ratified their first contract last year. Kickstarter United ratified their first contract in 2022. I myself was in the Glitch union when we won voluntary recognition several years ago.

(We had layoffs unrelated to the union and more related to a bad monetization scheme and high costs, during which the union negotiated increased severance and health insurance coverage vs we were initially offered.)

Union successes are definitely growing in tech.

Re: Anime is a $25B industry that pays its animators pennies

#82

Post by itake »

madrox wrote: post #3

When I read things like this, I think back on my experience in games and entertainment. I believe that the more generally prestigious the industry is, the more likely it is to see worker exploitation. Part of your pay is wrapped up in getting to brag that you work in industry X on product Y. Almost by definition, that means young, passionate labor. Industry leaders quickly learn how to exploit the young and passionat…

This doesn't hold water when you look at the prestige of tech companies and their compensation packages.

It is simply supply and demand. There are many people that can draw the characters, so their employees are fungible.

Re: Anime is a $25B industry that pays its animators pennies

#83

Post by charcircuit »

This title is hyperbole. The worst pay for animators would be for contractors / freelancers doing douga (drawing in betweens) who are very slow at drawing. The pay is per frame so it's all about efficiency. You would have to take multiple days for a frame to only make pennies per day.

Re: Anime is a $25B industry that pays its animators pennies

#84

Post by andirk »

nextworddev wrote: post #65

Then who’s making money?

Probably the Japanimation upper brass. I don't watch it but most of the characters look identical with the good guys being Japanese but looking like white Americans: large eyes, fair skin, tall, voluptuous. Maybe it's easy to find those animators since their skillset is the same across the board.

Re: Anime is a $25B industry that pays its animators pennies

#85

Post by tomcam »

swells34 wrote: post #54
Ecstatify wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah let’s get rid of minimum wage while we’re at it.

I'd much rather implement a maximum wage, would do a huge amount of good for our society. Let's say a cap on any more than $10M a year for total wealth gain for any individual. Everything else is taxed at 100%. Suddenly, we could all have healthcare, kids would get the supplies they need for school, a UBI scheme would be doable. Basically, we could finally stop acting like a poor third world country.

Is it your thought that a 100% tax rate would increase the productivity of those being taxed at that rate? Or even leave it unchanged?

Re: Anime is a $25B industry that pays its animators pennies

#86

Post by tomcam »

Moru wrote: post #36
savanaly wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I totally agree with your diagnosis, but I don’t see why it’s considered to be a problem. Why shouldn’t people be free to trade off salary against other desirable traits in a job? Even at the extremes?

Because it's a very uneven power balance. Big company using young inexperienced workers that just want a foot in the door on a childhood dream and have no idea how much their work is worth. Most companies knows to exploit this to the full. Especially known in arts, music and game industry. Less so with (metal) industry jobs where there are old unions helping the workers to a healthier power balance. Except for Musk t…

Did people 100 years ago get stock options and similar forms of compensation along with their meager salaries?

Re: Anime is a $25B industry that pays its animators pennies

#87

Post by Gigachad »

nextworddev wrote: post #60
Gigachad wrote: post #23

Meanwhile furry art is a fairly small industry that pays artists fortunes.

First time hearing. Any examples I can take a look at?

It’s a little bit tricky to get the stats because it’s all self employed artists and they don’t tend to post their finances publicly, but you can see some data from patreon. This artist (NSFW https://www.patreon.com/braeburned) has over 4000 monthly paying subscribers. We can’t see what tier they are paying, but even if they all picked the cheapest one, they are earning as much as I earn as a programmer on patreon members alone. And then they have a whole load of merch like printed books, posters, etc that would be earning a decent amount.

Since there are basically no corporations in the furry space, the only cut being taken is the payment provider cut. No management, no marketing, no shareholders. It’s not the highest paying career ever, but I’d say it’s above median.

Re: Anime is a $25B industry that pays its animators pennies

#88

Post by jimmyjazz14 »

itake wrote: post #82
madrox wrote: post #3

When I read things like this, I think back on my experience in games and entertainment. I believe that the more generally prestigious the industry is, the more likely it is to see worker exploitation. Part of your pay is wrapped up in getting to brag that you work in industry X on product Y. Almost by definition, that means young, passionate labor. Industry leaders quickly learn how to exploit the young and passionat…

This doesn't hold water when you look at the prestige of tech companies and their compensation packages. It is simply supply and demand. There are many people that can draw the characters, so their employees are fungible.

I don't really think good artist are that common, then again I guess we are talking about anime here (jk, I appreciate the art of much anime).

Re: Anime is a $25B industry that pays its animators pennies

#89

Post by lacrimacida »

itake wrote: post #82
madrox wrote: post #3

When I read things like this, I think back on my experience in games and entertainment. I believe that the more generally prestigious the industry is, the more likely it is to see worker exploitation. Part of your pay is wrapped up in getting to brag that you work in industry X on product Y. Almost by definition, that means young, passionate labor. Industry leaders quickly learn how to exploit the young and passionat…

This doesn't hold water when you look at the prestige of tech companies and their compensation packages. It is simply supply and demand. There are many people that can draw the characters, so their employees are fungible.

Who takes the money home though? Those too can be made fungible. Let’s not try to justify exploitation and grift.

Re: Anime is a $25B industry that pays its animators pennies

#90

Post by jahewson »

swells34 wrote: post #54
Ecstatify wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah let’s get rid of minimum wage while we’re at it.

I'd much rather implement a maximum wage, would do a huge amount of good for our society. Let's say a cap on any more than $10M a year for total wealth gain for any individual. Everything else is taxed at 100%. Suddenly, we could all have healthcare, kids would get the supplies they need for school, a UBI scheme would be doable. Basically, we could finally stop acting like a poor third world country.

Yeah so that’s not how taxes work.
Post reply on HN