When Kate Nash announced she had started an OnlyFans to help fund her music tour, she all but broke the internet. ‘Don’t be sad,’ she wrote on Instagram. ‘It’s very empowering and selling pics of my arse is fun and funny, sex is fun and funny.’

The response was unsurprisingly divisive. While industry friends like Self-Esteem and Alison Brie praised Nash’s decision, others questioned how ‘empowering’ it is. And while much of the resulting debate was thoughtful and inquisitive, some was undoubtedly steeped in sexism.

Shame around sex work was prevalent, as though Nash choosing to start an OnlyFans is any different to her having a second job down the pub or in her local supermarket. When you look at it that way the question goes from ‘why OnlyFans?’ to ‘Why at all?’. The fact someone at Nash’s level of success even needs a side hustle is surely concerning. There is, Nash explains, something fundamentally broken in the music industry that artists are routinely forced to fund their careers in other ways.

‘Touring costs so much money these days it makes losses not profits, you end up hoping that you’ll sell enough merch to make up the losses, get out of the red zone and make nothing,’ she tells Grazia. ‘That’s just an unsustainable business model. The cost of travel, food, hiring a van or bus, hotels, crew wages, hiring gear, everything has gone up, but musicians wages haven’t, and our recorded music has never been worth so little to us.

Nash funds most of her music and touring herself. She has a crew and band of 10 people, with touring costs amounting to an average of £10,000 a day. ‘My fees come in under that too,’ she explains. ‘And that’s just bringing a backdrop with my name on it for show production, no extra lights and stripped back as much as possible.’ 

She refuses to diminish the quality of her show by lowering the budget any further – not when she could just, as she puts it, flash her arse online instead. ‘I need extra income to take the stress out of [touring],’ she says. ‘And to pay my band and crew fairly, to put on high quality shows for my fans. I like flashing my arse and I know a few people that run their own adult film companies or work on OnlyFans, and I thought it was a fun way to start the tour “Butts 4 tour buses”’

She was surprised by the attention she received with her announcement, not least because many musicians have OnlyFans now. Earlier this year, Lily Allen claimed that she’s earned more selling feet pictures on OnlyFans than she ever has from Spotify streams. Rapper Cardi B reportedly made more than £45million during her short stint on the site and Iggy Azalea is said to make more than £13million a month.

For Nash, it’s about more than just money – she wants to make a statement about the state of the music industry. ‘The music industry is corrupt, broken and has failed artists completely,’ she explains. ‘The level of success that is required to make profit has become so inaccessible for most people. The major labels have set it up so that themselves and a bunch of tech bros can profit in the millions and even billions and musicians are getting poorer.

‘It’s not ok because it excludes working class people from entering the business,’ she continues. ‘It means that indie, mid-level and smaller artists are left struggling and will most likely look for other jobs when they hit their 30s. It’s a feminist issue because female musicians that want kids will likely have to give up music if they want children.’

It’s a race and sexuality issue too, she says. ‘There is so much discrimination and we need to financially empower people for their own work. Economically it’s not just bad for musicians, it’s bad for the entire country. Something like one in 10 tracks that are listened to most in the world are by British artists and only about a 30th of that money comes back to the UK. It’s a disservice to the entire country and I think it’s a disgrace. Things should be better now than they were 20 years ago, but we are in crisis I’m not sure what makes the UK great if we lose our music culture and grassroots. It’s really sad. 125 venues in the UK closed last year and more will fall. If bands keep cancelling tours, then we lose more venues, and more jobs are at stake. Van and bus drivers, roadies, sound engineers, lighting engineers, tour managers, people that own gear hire companies, rehearsal rooms, managers, videographers, photographers, the list goes on. Financially we are responsible for everyone in the industry, yet we are being ripped off.’

For the record, she doesn’t think anything about what she’s doing is shameful. ‘It’s funny because I grew up watching Barbara Windsor flashing her bum and boobs all the time in Carry on films and I would sit there and watch that with my Nan and Grandad,’ she laughs. ‘Carry on films were completely acceptable and watched on a Sunday afternoon.’

In fact, the sneering reaction goes beyond just stigma around sex work – it’s indicative of larger attitudes towards female sexual agency. ‘If a woman earns her own money and has complete control over her body and sexuality certain people don’t seem to like it,’ Nash says. ‘We’re very indoctrinated about sex and society expects certain things from us. It’s sad because you’ll likely feel freer and have better sex if you have an open mind. And I respect sex workers very much. I don’t know if you can class me as a sex worker but I’m fine with it if someone wants to. I just think a woman can make her own choices and it’s not for someone else to tell me what empowers me. I’m literally the one experiencing it and I’m a 37-year-old woman.’

The debate around how empowering OnlyFans is has been an entirely more complicated aspect, with some accusing Nash of being ‘tone deaf’ for working in an industry that women are routinely exploited in. It seems like a lot to put on her shoulders, but how does she feel about it?

‘I think there is exploitation in every facet of life, and I obviously deeply care about women’s issues and have always been an outspoken advocate and supporter of women’s rights and sex workers rights,’ Nash says. ‘I don’t think that limiting workers’ rights is ever the right thing to do. Sex work has been around forever and always will be, I don’t believe you will erase it so empowering people that do sex work will help to protect and empower sex workers. I think there are 2twoseparate issues that have been conflated because people are shocked by sex work and want to control it. It’s like saying to get rid of nail salons and stop people doing nails in order to prevent people being human trafficked in nail salons. Of course I want to see an end to human trafficking. I also believe that sex workers deserve to have rights and the choice to do sex work if they want to. I don’t think that you can really comment on whether an individual has agency if they are telling you they do. It’s not your experience. A lot of things in life aren’t just “good” or just “bad” and I think people try to reduce things to these black and white arguments which is reductive and ignorant in my opinion. I’m not sure who it helps.’

Creating content on the road, Nash has been snapping pics in fun and spontaneous locations, she says. ‘It’s like “ooh that’s a fun wall let’s shoot there” or a flash before I go on stage or in a dressing room,’ she says. ‘On tour there is always somewhere fun and interesting looking to get creative and cheeky. I’ve done a little bit at home too. It’s been easy and casual to shoot but I’m also interested in setting up something a little higher in production value, I love to be creative, and I love photo shoots.’

Could her bum save the music industry? The success of her punk protest, as she calls it, depends on if the government listens and steps in. ‘Lisa Nandy, the secretary for Culture, Media and Sport, has the opportunity to change everything on the live music and streaming side of things and I’m really rooting for her,’ Nash says. ‘I think she has the chance to become the coolest person in music history in decades. She could literally save counterculture and become a legend. I believe she can rise to the challenge and do something really phenomenal in this pivotal moment.’