Artist Shares What Kind Of Choosing Beggars He Encounters By Posting These 11 Screenshotted Conversations

Just when you think you’ve heard every trick in the choosing beggars‘ book, a creative comes forward and shares more absurd tactics these people use to get free stuff and services. This time, it’s Jamie Mathias.

A few days ago, the UK-based musician posted the exchanges he has had with people who believe that exposure is the best payment and demanded that he create (and sometimes fly to another country to perform) original songs for free.

“I’ve been a singer-songwriter for around 10 years, releasing several of my own tracks (either self-released or through indie-labels), with a couple of my singles charting,” Mathias told Bored Panda. “This brought me a half-decent following across platforms and then around 5-6 years ago, I decided to write bespoke songs for other people.”

Usually, it’s composing a wedding song for a special moment during the ceremony, like a speech or the first dance. “The demand has grown exponentially which means I receive a lot of enquiries,” the musician said. “Most from very reasonable people but as you can see, some from people who expect the world for nothing.”

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Outrageous requests I’ve had for personal songs from people who really don’t understand how businesses work [A THREAD]
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1. You’ll build a name for much quicker for yourself by doing this for free pic.twitter.com/uyQVTK1133
— Jamie Mathias (@JamieMathias) October 26, 2021

And there’s no shortage of them

2. The man who thought I should cover the cost of my own flight to his wedding in Italy and write the song for free so I could get a nice video out of it. pic.twitter.com/SX8E8RBeZX
— Jamie Mathias (@JamieMathias) October 26, 2021

3. The man who offered to pimp out his bridesmaids and wouldn’t take no for an answer pic.twitter.com/tvHV8sz7Tp
— Jamie Mathias (@JamieMathias) October 26, 2021

4. The woman who wanted a song for her horse riding company with no budget, in exchange for me sharing it to my facebook for exposure. She blocked me after I asked for a horse in exchange 😢 pic.twitter.com/oa7Ye5tMfD
— Jamie Mathias (@JamieMathias) October 26, 2021

5. No fanks pic.twitter.com/RXuzqvIWck
— Jamie Mathias (@JamieMathias) October 26, 2021

6. The one that compared sharing a song to 2000 followers to @justinbieber sharing it pic.twitter.com/NFtn0rG3oI
— Jamie Mathias (@JamieMathias) October 26, 2021

7. aw pic.twitter.com/yBIucncO1X
— Jamie Mathias (@JamieMathias) October 26, 2021

8. He’d rather buy a reggae CD pic.twitter.com/S3J57ZbVp1
— Jamie Mathias (@JamieMathias) October 26, 2021

9. Beggars can’t be choosers pic.twitter.com/vpSXwVXjaN
— Jamie Mathias (@JamieMathias) October 26, 2021

Mathias thinks one of the reasons why he gets these requests is the fact that he doesn’t really advertise his prices anywhere and because many people don’t have a benchmark to compare his services to. And there’s so much that goes into them!

“Creating a bespoke song for someone starts with a conversation where I can gain more of an understanding as to what they want,” Jamie introduced the process. “Because I write them for a variety of reasons, this can really differ. On the wedding side of things, it’s working out whether they want it to be more on the funny or romantic side, how it’s going to be used, and then I send out a guide which helps them with the information that I’m going to need from them.”

He does, however, write songs about other things too (like the loss of loved ones), “which need to be handled really delicately and almost put me in the shoes of the person who is grieving, which is really tough, and make sure I have the right info I need,” he continued. “Once I have this, I then start piecing it together and write the song making sure I have included the things that are most important to them. Once completed, I then send them a studio version of the song and if they want to make any changes to it, they are free to. I then travel all over the country or even the world to perform it.”

11. Someone who saw my car was stolen and thought they’d shoot their shot pic.twitter.com/NuqlDrBZAO
— Jamie Mathias (@JamieMathias) October 26, 2021

12. Not about usual business but a request for my semen instead pic.twitter.com/SJB9ruKJt4
— Jamie Mathias (@JamieMathias) October 26, 2021

Image credits: JamieMathias

13. The song I wrote for the woman at the start of the thread https://t.co/nGMObst5Z2
— Jamie Mathias (@JamieMathias) October 26, 2021

17. How could I forget this gem! One of my favourites. Someone who was quoted and invoice £1050 and mistakenly read it (twice) as £10.50 and that’s what he put in my account. I must think I’m Ed Sheeran or something. I particularly enjoyed the shock when I sent £1.05 back pic.twitter.com/uCBFmsyfne
— Jamie Mathias (@JamieMathias) October 27, 2021

19. I just wanted to share some of the positives for those of you who are losing faith in humanity. These are real life paying customers, like a unicorn or the Lochness monster. pic.twitter.com/52GH3d7uny
— Jamie Mathias (@JamieMathias) October 28, 2021

20. The person who was sick in hospital and a free song would have lifted her spirits pic.twitter.com/Ce4O0BS2vQ
— Jamie Mathias (@JamieMathias) October 29, 2021

Author Len Cristobal thinks another reason why creative work is often undervalued rises from distance.

“People rarely see artists, their sleeves rolled up and hunched over a desk, studying various elements of design, principles, software, methods, materials, trends, histories, and relevant industries in order to hone their craft, find opportunities where their skill set is needed, and produce sensible artwork,” she wrote. “There are people who believe that artists deserve low pay because their work does not require technical skills — as if art is produced solely by impulse, vanity, or some internal dissonance.”

But it might also have to do something with human nature. Not just our crooked understanding of each other. Psychologist and decision researcher Eva Krockow, Ph.D., said people experience a pleasant high after receiving a freebie in an expensive world where we frequently have to pay even for visiting a public toilet.

Whatever the reason might be, Mathias isn’t receiving such requests every day, but they remain regular and still blow his mind every time he receives one. Only with less negative emotion than before. “Ultimately, I got to the point where I don’t get angry at all anymore; I just like to have fun with them,” he explained. “I realized that by doing that and posting them online, I get way more ‘exposure’ than I would have done from doing their booking, and I get to enjoy it in the process!”