Here's the thing, you feel conflicted but you don't work for free according to your own description. You work for the friend rate. The friend rate is prevalent anywhere you go. It doesn't have to be some artistic discipline. You are at least working for money. Now my band of the past two years has employed artists and photographers at the friend rate (or normal rate) many, many times. Keep in mind, this is a band, a "business" entity that makes no money, is still technically paying for the artistic services it receives. I've got no problem with that and hope that arrangement continues in the future. What I do have a problem with is that the norm in our scene is that, at best, all venues and promoters expect us to play for free or expect us to do all the work selling tickets while keeping none of the profit, and potentially take ticket sales at a loss. This is the environment of most local music nowadays. It encompasses the entire artistic scene. For me this is just a hobby though, so I don't get quite up in arms about it. There are, however, all the other ones that hope to do this for a living, and prospectively all the music of the next generation starts here, so I think it's kind of a big deal.
All this is true - but my main beef is all the creatives who lose their shit when they find someone posting on Craigslist or Mandy who are clearly devaluing the work. 1) Why the fuck are you looking for work on Craigslist. 2) Why the fuck are you looking for work on Mandy. 3) Why the fuck are you surprised that the bottom feeders who hire off of Mandy are looking for free shit. 4) Look at what's available for hire on Mandy or Craigslist and tell me you'd pay for it. It's like... I get it. There are assholes who devalue your profession. Are you going to ignore them and take gigs with the people who don't? Or are you going to elevate this shit to something you see on BoredPanda so that everyone learns to hate fucking designers? I've paid five different designers in the past two years. Legit three of them have flaked. Two of them flaked while I still owe them money. As in, my last communication was "can you invoice me please so we can move forward." And shit like this doesn't help.
This right here is the gold: If people respect themselves and their skills, then they get their work from people who respect them and their skills. If you are looking for work on Craigslist, you hate yourself. Period. The signal-to-noise ratio there is so bad that the few actual market-rate paying gigs you find on there, are offset by the amount of time you waste reading bullshit posts. I was a freelance writer for 10 years. I'll write a blog post for $100. Can you get someone to write it for $5? Sure. And you will get exactly what you pay for. My clients know my work, know my value, and they pay my rates. Nobody asks me to write for free. Ya know why? Because I don't. I get paid. Every single time. Because I respect myself and my work. And if you don't respect me and my work, I don't write for you. Period. Why the fuck are you looking for work on _____.