The Rise Of The Creator Economy
Yesterday, I had the pleasure of joining a fireside chat with a business class at The University of Florida, my alma mater. My old professor interviewed me while students jumped in with thought-provoking and inspiring questions.
I walked away with a lot of excitement, not only because I was inspired by them, but also because there was an undercurrent of creativity bubbling up from so many of the students.
The audience consisted of writers, podcasters, YouTubers - you name it. For many, the amount of energy that they put into their creative projects rivaled what they put into their academics.
This stood out to me because I’ve spent a lot of time over the last few weeks thinking about the ‘creator renaissance’ that is occurring right now and how their experience mirrors many working professionals and people of all ages.
Maybe it’s because I spend too much time on TikTok or because I subscribe to a lot of newsletters, but I’ve come to the belief that we are witnessing a large-scale resurgence of a creator culture.
Before we get into the examples of how we are seeing this manifest, let’s talk about the factors at play that I think are enabling this wave:
Creator tools have become ubiquitous, inexpensive/free, and intuitive/easy-to-use
Monetization paths around content have moved in parallel, making it easy for creators to turn their passion into some type of revenue stream.
Self-expression is now celebrated, both inside and outside of the workplace/school systems.
My opinions on the first and second factors are shaped by pieces like this, which does a great job of outlining how business models by Uber and others influence people’s willingness to become more self-reliant and entrepreneurial in nature.
Also, because I’ve seen the significant growth of creator platforms like Patreon and the surge in short-form and social content like the type found on TikTok.
For example, Patreon’s recent $90 million fundraising announcement came with news of how hundreds of thousands of creators are collectively earning billions of dollars from their passion. They are just one player in a growing market where this type of activity is rampant.
Earlier this year, it was reported that the number of new podcast shows submitted to Spotify reached 150,000 for the month of March, representing a nearly 70% month-over-month growth. The fact that this data point only refers to new shows means the scale of creator content for podcasts is massively large.
Platforms like Substack, Medium, and WordPress continue to see meaningful growth in the number of writers and bloggers who join to use the written form to share ideas and content.
Take a look within your own social circles. Identify how many people you know who have tried to create their own podcast, blog, or have a digital product or course that they sell. If the number is noticeably larger than it was three or four years ago, that could be evidence of my hypothesis.
What’s most interesting about this is not only that more people are doing things they enjoy and could potentially monetize their hobby, but also that the traditional gatekeepers of high-quality content (network TV, production studios, publishing companies, etc) are gradually losing their dominance, which I think is a good thing for everyone.
With all of that in mind, do you agree that we may be witnessing a rise in the creator economy? Or am I being too narrow in my view?