Billie Eilish under fire for ‘free labour’ fan art contest

Professional artists on Twitter urged star to pay people properly for their work

Billie Eilish has come under fire for running a “free labor” fan art competition, the winner of which will be turned into a piece of official merchandise.

The Bad Guy singer has been slammed by professional artists on Twitter after she announced the “Make the Merch” competition in collaboration with Adobe.

Eilish was criticised on the social media platform by artists who called the competition exploitative.

“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,” tweeted @mspixieriot.

And @ChrisHackneyGGK, added: “No. Pay artists to design something.The rules of these kinds of contests pray on your love for the celebrity and require that you sign away the rights to your art so the celebrity & company can make money off of it without compensating you.It’s theft. Say No.”

The competition’s rules states that “Each entrant (unless the Grand Prize or a First winner) retains ownership of their Entry”, according to dailydot.com.

While unpopular with the professional artists who spoke out against it, the competition is offering a $10,000 prize for the winner and $1,000 for the runner-up, as well as concert tickets and Adobe products, the website says.

The winner’s art will also appear on merchandise and onstage before Eilish performs on tour.