Billie Eilish's New Contest With Adobe Draws Backlash on Social Media
Billie Eilish has partnered with Adobe to host a new contest — and it's getting major backlash. Eilish took to social media to explain the artistic competition, but many pointed out the biggest issue with a competition like this.
On January 26th in a viral Twitter post, the singer detailed the "Make The Merch" contest which gets fans involved with the making of tour merchandise. The winner will have their design featured on a t-shirt to be sold during Eilish's Happier Than Ever world tour. The grand prize winner also receives $10,000, two tickets to Eilish's show, and a membership to Adobe. The first prize winner will receive $1,000 along with an Adobe membership and tickets.
Since her rise to fame, Eilish has earned 2 number one albums (Happier Than Ever and When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go) and one #1 hit (bad guy) on the Billboard Hot 100. Just in 2 years, Eilish has scored 7 Grammys from popular categories including Song Of The Year and Album Of The Year.
The Twitter community was quick to fire back at Eilish and Adobe for not paying artists for their work in, what many called, exploitation.
In the official rules, Adobe claims the right to full ownership of the winner's art. The artist will not receive any form of payment from the sales of the t-shirts and cannot claim the art as their own. Fans who enter the contest but don't win will own their work, but Adobe still has the right to use it at another time.
Many voiced their opinions by replying to Eilish's tweet.
"Logo/art contests are a scam. The winner gets a prize, but every single entry belongs to the contest organizer, forever. They give out one prize, they have THOUSANDS of designs they can make money off of, and they've created a merch line without paying a single artist," @mspixieriot exclaimed.
"Hey Billie, I'm a huge fan, but this isn't cool. @Adobe as a professional who's been using your products for 20 years, I'm very disappointed." @ErenAngiolini shared their thoughts adding, "these contests are exploitative: you take advantage of fans & artists, offering exposure. You have plenty of money to hire & pay people."
In a long tweet, @RowenRoaden hopes that Eilish will change her mind about working with Adobe.
"This is a horrifically predatory practice, they said. "You're asking your fans to do work they lose the rights to and are not paid for. You can just commission artists. You can pay people for their time and energy and their skills, and have it not be a monstrous way to take advantage of young creators during a pandemic."
