Is the 2020s the Decade of the Creator Economy?
Exploring the creator economy, platforms supporting creative dreams, and more…
Something fascinating is happening for people who crave the freedom to pursue and monetize the things they love.
Creativity is at its peak in the 2020s, and platforms that support independent creative expressions are springing up more than ever.
In this article, we will talk about the creator economy, social platforms supporting the creative dream, and some more essential info for creators.
What is the Creator Economy?
According to Forbes, the Creator Economy is made up of the platforms, marketplaces, and tools democratizing creative expression and entrepreneurship.
The creator economy empowers an independent creative class to make a living on their passions.
Technology helps creators in this economy to level the playing field with content creation and decentralize the authority that was once owned by big corporations.
This economy is also known as the passion economy, and in the 2020s it continues to rise, allowing independent creators to have a voice, build communities and share their message with their audience.
According to a recent study, most American kids would rather become youtube stars than astronauts — this highlights a shift in our society as future generations will value becoming creators and making money from their skills.
This system is driven by passion, it is made up of people brave enough to chase and monetize their passions and create communities independently, what can be more beautiful than doing what you love?
It belongs to everyone who can create, it doesn’t matter if you’re an artist, painter, writer, musician, journalist, community builder, dancer, photography, video gamer, meme maker, yes you read that right, meme maker, the opportunities are endless!
The creator economy has clearly taken over the world of influence and culture and the rise of creator economy tools have allowed new creators to emerge daily, and existing creators to reach audiences in new ways — Andrew Omori (Partner at Andreessen Horowitz)
The Role of Technology in the Creator Economy
Technology is playing a huge role in democratizing creative expression, with more platforms springing up and empowering creators to do what they love to do — create.
Technology has always been a key driver of economic growth, it expands the horizon for opportunities, the boom of creator economy platforms is technology’s way of creating opportunities and disrupting already existing systems.
There is a noticeable shift in the social media landscape, the platforms are moving from an ad-based revenue model to a content-based economy model.
In the era of the ad-based revenue model, the users are the product, advertising companies bid for the attention of users and the highest bidders win.
This model adds no value to creators, as it only works for the platforms and the advertisers.
In this decade, social platforms are shifting to the content-based model that seeks to empower creators with the tools that will allow them to create and curate their own content and become independent micro-companies.
Creator Economy Platforms
The creator economy is not an entirely new concept, platforms like Patreon and YouTube have been supporting creators, but it wasn’t enough for the magnitude of niches and creative expressions available.
In this decade, we have more options.
Below are some of the platforms enabling independent creators to boycott traditional gatekeepers and make a living or a passive income from their passions:
- Only Fans: OnlyFans is a subscription service that allows creators to earn from their content. Creators receive funding directly from their fans on a monthly basis as well as one-time tips and the pay-per-view feature.
- Gumroad: Gumroad is an online marketplace that facilitates the sale of products by creators directly to consumers.
- Substack: Substack is an online newsletter subscription platform that provides publishing, payment, analytics, and design infrastructure to support creators.
- BitClout: BitClout is a decentralized social media platform built on a blockchain that allows you to buy or sell tokens based on speculating people’s reputations.
- Shopify: Shopify is a subscription-based e-commerce platform that allows you to easily set up an online store and sell your products.
- Red Bubble : Redbubble is a global online marketplace for print-on-demand products based on artwork submitted by independent users.
- TeeSpring: Teespring is a print-on-demand platform like Redbubble where you can design t-shirts and other products.
- NFTs: NFTs are non-fungible tokens, it is a digital certificate of ownership on the blockchain — It allows creators to authentically own their craft.
- Teachable: Teachable is an online platform that allows you to transform your knowledge into online courses and coaching services.
- Unsplash: Unsplash is a platform that has millions of free photos that you can download and use for any project — gifted by the world’s largest community of photographers.
- Twitch: Twitch is the world’s leading live streaming video platform and community for gamers
- Tiktok: TikTok is a short-form, video-sharing app that allows users to create and share videos on any topic.
- Club House: Clubhouse is a drop-in audio-only platform where people around the world come together to talk, listen and learn from each other in real-time on various topics and creators can now be tipped.
- NewNew: NewNew is a platform where you control decisions and outcomes of people’s existence by buying shares in their lives — basically a human stock market.
- Swell: Swell is a headless e-commerce platform for modern brands. It allows you to create a fast, flexible, and customizable online store with a future-proof API and headless storefront themes.
- Breakr: Breakr is a music marketing platform that exists to bridge the gap between content creators and music labels. On Breakr, you can hire influencers to create content for you and promote your music to their audience.
- FutureStream: FutureStream is a ticketed live streaming platform built for artists and creators to monetize their live streams. The platform supports NFT drops, live shows, podcasts, and other events putting the power in the hands of the content creator.
- Revue: Revue is a paid newsletter subscription service owned by Twitter that makes it easy for writers and publishers to send editorial newsletters and get paid.
The creator economy is rising and independent creators now have access to tools that allow them to participate in the new age of digital capitalism.
It’s cool to see a new social platform focus first on participant income rather than internalized monetization. Excited for the burgeoning creator economy and next era of internet business models. — Patrick Collison (CEO of Stripe).
Economic Importance of the Creator Economy
According to a report by Signal Fire, there are over 50 million active participants in the creator economy — with that figure likely to grow larger due to the low barrier to entry.
A digital economy that supports individuals to freely express their creativity and passion will support millions of people to create jobs and micro startups in every part of the world.
Ultimately, the creator economy meets the freelance/gig economy at an intersection, the opportunities created in this economy could solve the problem of unemployment and poverty triggered by the coronavirus pandemic, especially in developing countries.
Creators in this economy can earn via paid subscriptions, merchandise sales, tipping, virtual events, influencer marketing, sponsored content, etc.
The most beautiful and inspiring thing about the passion economy is its potential to create a thriving middle class in developing countries and decentralizing the American dream.
Most opportunities in this economy pay creators in USD, making it easy for creators in developing countries with weaker home currencies to have a slice of the American pie no matter where they live.
In Conclusion
With the rise of the creator-based economy model, more opportunities are created for people to embark on all types of creative pursuits.
The future is bright for creators and creator-based platforms, in this decade, even VCs and investors are seeing the benefits of empowering and investing in the creative class.
The internet in the 21st century has democratized the art of creation and taken a level of power away from big corporations and given it straight to individuals who can now make money from their various passions.
We live in exciting times, in a decade, a lot of big startups will start from one-man micro startups — the passion-based economy has paved the way to go from independent creator to founder.
The creator economy is the future of internet-based businesses and the 2020s is the decade for creators, with low barriers to entry into the economy, all you need is a unique set of skills, the internet, a niche-specific platform, and a passion that sets it all on fire.
