The Quiet Ego Of Collaboration

Hello, hello. Over the past weeks I've been revisiting the invisible structure behind collaborations - the framework of credits, naming habits, visual choices and those subtle conventions that shape how someone steps into another artist's world. Meanwhile, I updated metadata, realigned artworks... basically tidied all my releases. A bit of quiet housekeeping, done precisely because I was searching for clarity. The idea is simple: we all build our own space. Our own world. And without meaning to, we also build borders. Some useful. Others maybe a bit too rigid for what music actually needs. For a while I believed certain details - "with", "feat", title formats, name order - helped keep a coherent aesthetic. A certain internal logic. And yes, it worked. And to some extent, I still think it does. But I also started noticing something else: those same rules, if too strict, even when harmless in theory, shape how others feel when they join your world. And sometimes they push people away. Not out of conflict - simply due to the tone the whole thing gives off. Some artists thrive inside clearly defined worlds. Others prefer open horizons. And then there's the subtle friction: What does it actually mean to enter someone else's artistic universe? How many signals do we need to feel like we're truly collaborating - not just "appearing" or "featuring" on something? I'm trying to understand where the line really is between coherence and constraint. Between identity and rigidity. Between aesthetics and that quiet, unspoken ego we all carry. I'm curious - it's more a structural curiosity, almost anthropological. I've always been obsessed with systems and patterns, with how small decisions can completely shape a path. And instead of speculating on my own forever, I decided to do something more practical. I made a small survey. It's anonymous, direct and aimed at the core question: How do artists perceive credits, titles, artworks and the "entry" into someone else's world? There are no correct answers. It's about perception. And perception reveals a lot about how we create, how we collaborate and how we negotiate visibility and authorship in an artistic space. If you've ever collaborated, declined a collab, hesitated, accepted instantly, felt slightly off or felt perfectly in sync - your input will be valuable for this little personal study. The form is here. If you decide to participate, I appreciate it - and so will the artistic community. I haven't found any study on this, so... we might be pioneers here. (giggles) I'm always trying to understand new things and these invisible borders are my new obsession. Thank you for reading "Inside The Mind Of An Artist". Until next time, Vítor