Ten years ago, if you were a kid making a living off of YouTube ad revenue and brand deals, you were probably told you didn't have a real job. The creator economy is a buzzy new industry and if you monetize your creative output, you are part of it.
According to a landmark report from the venture capital firm, creators are the fastest-growing type of small business. More American children want to be YouTube stars than astronauts, despite the fact that the creator economy only formed a decade ago. It makes sense that more and more startup are providing tools for creators to use, it is an opportunity to cash in on a growing market, and savvy entrepreneurs want to make money.
I have written about credit card companies for creators, community-building tools and companies that help you design a product to sell, among other ventures. I have noticed that not all of the businesses in my inbox are good for the creators they intend to serve. Some might be predatory.
If an all-in-one creator platform folds, what does that mean for creators who put all their eggs in that basket? How do major tech acquisitions affect people who monetize on those platforms? How can creators protect themselves from exploitative terms and conditions when they are investing in them?
If they don't become the next Patreon, the creators who trusted them will be doomed, so they need a backup plan.
If a startup doesn't become the next Patreon, the creators who trusted them will be doomed. I have started asking questions to any startup that claims to be an all-in-one solution to the creator economy. Fourthwall had a good answer.
The company said that it has three months of emergency operating expenses set aside to make sure that if they were to fail, they could help other platforms. If this were to happen, Fourthwall would make its platform open source. This is not helpful.
The creator economy has a tension between the promise of financial freedom and the realization that freedom comes at a cost. As more startups aim to connect talent with brand deals, build monetization tools and develop new social platforms, creators need to know what to look out for to avoid a bad situation, and startup themselves need to think as though they are in a creator's shoes, understanding that if a creator trusts
A platform is not a friend.
When the popular Anchor service was bought by the streaming service, the podcastsers panicked. The CEO of Multitude productions had seen big acquisitions before. McLoughlin has been a creator herself since the early days of YouTube, so she has seen the industry change from both creative and business perspectives. When the internet giant bought the video sharing site in 2006 was a defining moment for her.
McLoughlin wrote that before 9 a.m., she got a dozen messages from friends and colleagues worried about what the consolidation would mean for them. She talked about the lessons she learned from the acquisition, like Diversify your income streams, don't trust individual platforms too much and believe in your own value.
