People pay for art, not always with money but always with priceless intangibles like admiration and recognition. In fact, these intangibles can even be mutually exclusive with money. That is why some artists would rather be poor than “sell out”.
A situation where you can make a living from art but maintain the original spirit that motivated you to do art has been pretty rare. Many would keep a dayjob or some business while doing art on the side, for example, or have patrons or a community of some kind that partly subsidizes their life.
We do it aligned as a mass phenomenon.
But still Taylor for sure makes good music but how many people really pay for art?
And then also art from a specific artist.