How the Creator Crisis forced artists to be founders 

The social media platforms solved distribution but forgot monetization... Art got roped in with information that was ‘supposed to be free’. It was common for new distribution channels like Instagram, Vine, Snapchat, and TikTok to launch and even scale with no native monetization features. Most creators weren’t selling physical media like CDs or get... See more

The failure of the creator renaissance would be that artists are so busy managing their newfound tools that it drowns out the moments of inspiration. That’s why usability, instinctive onboarding flows, deep documentation, and reliable customer service will be so critical for startups building these creator tools. Instead of clumsy and inscrutable e... See more

Vine stars demanded monetization features, its owner Twitter refused, and many fled for YouTube. Platforms got scared. Twitch introduced tipping with Bits. By 2018, YouTube started testing Patreon-style Channel Memberships and Facebook offered Ad Breaks that paid video creators for mid-roll commercials. “It took 15 years of frustration and some ear... See more

Success looks like a thriving middle-class of creators, not just the most popular 1%, plus the production and growth teams surrounding them building sustainable careers by delighting a niche audience.

Conte sums it up with an exclamation point. “This is a renaissance that we are going through. The amount of funding and celebration for the arts that we're about to see at scale across the entire planet — it literally is going to make the first Renaissance seem like old news. We're about to see tens of millions of creative people empowered and enab... See more