Artists

A finished piece of work is not one product. It is a wallpaper at phone resolution, a high-resolution file at desktop resolution, a layered source file that shows how it was built, and sometimes the brushes used to make it. Most artists sell one of those, at one price, usually as a print, and leave the rest of the work unsold.

Separating them costs nothing because the work is already done. The wallpaper pack is an easy impulse purchase; the source file sells to the smaller group who want to learn from it rather than look at it; the brush set sells to other artists entirely. Each is a link at its own price, from a single drawing.

What it does not solve is discovery or piracy — someone determined to share a file will share it. What it changes is that each version of the work has a price and a place to be bought, rather than one price and a lot of unsold potential.