> It could just be that im out of touch with reality, but WHY are they agreeing to this? arent they the very problem? just demand money for a service.

My guess is desperation.

There are a lot of people that want to be artists. Some of these people find any other type of work to be unbearable. So they're either deciding to roll over and take it, since the alternative of working any other non-art-related job is too painful, or they're incorrectly thinking that if they do a good enough job on one project, they'll earn a name for themselves and get paid handsomely on the next.