There is a great video about motivation and what makes people produce the best ideas making the rounds, by Daniel Pink, author of the book Drive. He talks about scientific studies that say money is not a good motivator for most behaviors, and instead recommends Autonoyy, Mastery, and Purpose.

Although Pink is mostly talking about corporate environments and IT, this is also very interesting for the arts, like music and movies. It helps explain why, even though online file sharing has devastated music markets all over the world, it has not reduced the number of great bands and great music being made.

Of course, as Pink points out in his video, for motivation to move away from money to these other factors, basic subsistence is needed first. So for struggling artists, the picture is more murky.

Anyhow, it is a very fun video, just someone drawing on a white board, but very engaging.