The Case for Universal Creative Income

Today, the financial precarity associated with creative professions means that those who pursue art are typically well off: someone whose family has an income of $100,000 is twice as likely to become an artist, actor, musician, or author than someone from a family with $50,000 income. And those from households with an annual income of $1 million ar... See more

Another major potential downside is stifling innovation. While established, profitable companies are able to fund UCI, it’s infeasible for early-stage startups to do the same.

Platform-sponsored basic income for creators would be one step towards facilitating a more worker-friendly environment. In turn, a richer and more diverse content environment would enhance the consumer experience.

-Compete for creators: Implementing a UCI program allows platforms to attract creators in an era in which every social platform is fiercely competing for creator attention.

A platform-funded UCI program could also be controversial among top creators, because it is effectively redistribution within the platform’s economy: a share of the platform’s revenue—which is disproportionately earned from the top creators—would be allocated to emerging creators.

-Empower more diverse creators to participate in the creator economy. Our hypothesis is that funding the long-tail of creators can create more long-term business impact than funding top creators who can already monetize in myriad ways and are highly sought after by many platforms.

Though platform-funded UCI and crypto UCI may appear ideologically opposed, they are not mutually exclusive. Web2 and Web3 solutions can and will live in tandem: crypto UCI can be a great funding mechanism for creators with community recognition, but for a brand new creator, the distribution potential of Web2 aggregators is currently unparalleled.

Having tech platforms sponsor UCI programs is not without risk. It moves us from the real-world paradigm in which governments and central banks have absolute power over money, to an online world in which platforms have greater control over the livelihoods of emerging artists.

For platforms, the idea is simple: use company revenue to fund a Universal Creative Income program for emerging creators on the platform. For instance, companies like Facebook or YouTube could carve out a fund to support creators on the platform and send them a monthly check to cover basic living expenses, regardless of skill, training, or backgrou... See more