The Economics of Creativity: Who Gets Paid and Why

Behind these conversations is a fundamental change of the digital age that applies to essentially every creative field: in the past, consumers bought and collected physical editions of creative work, creating a direct value exchange between fans, artists, and producers. Today almost all creative work is digitized and essentially rented — lowering

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Today almost all creative work is digitized and essentially rented — lowering payouts, devaluing work, and redirecting the lion’s share of rewards to the platforms hosting the work rather than the creators themselves.

One of the major reasons the NFT trend is so spectacular is because it transforms the value proposition for creators. Instead of enlisting a publisher, gallery, or record label to monetize creative works, artists can carve out a larger slice of the total pie. This paradigm shift also breaks down the traditional stratification between consumers and ... See more

This is reflective of a broader trend—artists want direct ownership over the relationship with their fans, and to be compensated based on how these fans interact with their music. Case in point: SoundCloud’s recent foray into ‘fan-centric’ payouts, Deezer’s continued experimentation with user-centric payout models, and the ongoing parliamentary inq... See more

But it doesn’t feel too early to ask what might happen in a world where artists keep more or even most of the value that they create. This is personally relevant to me, of course, as a creative type who also stepped away from a “major” — a staff job at a big publication — in favor of selling my work directly to readers. But the larger cultural cons... See more

This decision-making around how to price digitally scarce music and art illuminated to me that in a commodified streaming economy, most musicians don’t have the ability to set the price of their own creative output in the first place, and may be leaving money on the table in the process.

When people typically talk about the attention economy, they’re referring to creators amassing the attention of an audience, and then, after they have the attention, they’re able to monetize that attention in all sorts of different ways...I think what’s really interesting about NFTs and some of the new creator economy products that are coming into ... See more