93% of Creators Say It’s Brought Them Stress

BUT THERE'S HOPE — A NEW, INDEPENDENT CREATOR IS EMERGING.

How do we know? Because we recently commissioned an independent study of the creator economy.?

We found a fantastic, outside team and we tasked them with a broad mandate: “Talk to actual creators and find out what’s going on.”

Then we got out of their way.?

They went above and beyond, running the largest ever open-market study of creators and bringing back findings that surprised us.

Some were bleak…

It’s no wonder that 33% have felt anger, rage, or extreme frustration with a major social media platform as they navigate this uncertainty. It's unexpected that ONLY 33% have felt it.?

But they also uncovered something hopeful: a new, Independent Creator, who is rising up and playing by a very different set of rules.?

The new Independent Creator:

Owns, doesn’t rent.

They want a direct relationship with their audience — not to have to go through social media,? where they have no ownership and little control.?

Invests in a community, not just building an audience.

21% of creators earn revenue from an online community where followers pay to interact with each other, not just with the creator.

This not only gives them independence from social media, but from the hamster wheel of content creation — the community connects with each other in meaningful ways. It’s not all about the creator.

Builds a network effect, not a content conveyor belt.

A network effect is a phenomenon whereby the more people or participants there are, the more the value of a good or service improves. It’s what built Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and now TikTok into juggernauts.?

Independent Creators are inching closer to this source of power by choosing to launch their own website/app destinations, investing more heavily in community, and looking for software that’s designed to deliver more value in the connections between members, automatically.?

The emergence of this new Independent Creator suggests three possible futures for the creator economy — all predicated on the idea of creator autonomy.?

And a future where creators have the freedom and autonomy to create on their own terms and build meaning by bringing people together? That’s a bright one.?

Click the image to visit the site and download the full whitepaper ??

Thank you to the brilliant Zoe Scaman of Bodacious Strategy Studio and Gunny Scarfo, Ben Zeidler, and the other amazing creative researchers at Nonfiction Research for bringing this project to life.