The creator economy is failing to spread the wealth
This is a very timely issue that not many are discussing.<p>Once a creator becomes popular, they often become sponsored, and a lot of the gear they use (which also sets them apart from regular creators) is given to them through sponsorships. It&#x27;s not an unfair advantage to the sponsored creator, but it does prove to be an unfair advantage to their competitors when you consider they are displayed on each site. Think about an independent film producer competing against a major studio produce a film.. This kind of ecosystem completely destroys the value of independent artists and favors big industry every time. There are literally thousands of talented people creating content totally for free over many years because of the myth of an eventual payoff that is the very basis of modern-day creator funds.<p>These platforms don&#x27;t have separate categories for content creators based on their funding and content to fairly display everyone as equals, or among people operating on each level of ability&#x2F;funding, why? because platforms favor proven earners and big industry -- Thy also don&#x27;t want unknown creators to potentially replace chosen creators as well in a lot of cases.<p>Money&#x2F;Profit drives platforms, not content, and not a concern for discovering new talent, but platforms want independent content contributed without providing opportunity and without paying independent creators for it (of course). Platforms create the dream of discovery and work hard to lure independent creators with the ideal that they can grow on them purely as fish bait to cover the fact that most already engineer their featured content heavily to be pre-determined and fixed.<p>Don&#x27;t get me wrong, occasionally new talent slips through, but it&#x27;s very rare in frequency.<p>Because top creators make so much, there&#x27;s an entire network built around them, where platforms promote them and where algorithms keep them on top of everyone else, by featuring top streamers and earners on repeat, and by featuring them on front pages, while unknowns stay buried, without even an occasional mention on a featured page.<p>If you look at black hat forums, there are hundreds of people paying and faking their way in order to become popular and successful, and even some scammers are making more money off of fake music and streaming than really talented independent artists in music and video production. The current state of social media algorithms is not based on discovering talent, it is based on making companies money, and in covertly limiting user options for choices in featured content to make platform revenue stable.<p>A better way to look at the process of creating things as an independent artist is to focus on building locally, and in not trying to emulate nor compete with big industry, because the burnout is real, and the chances of growing, lasting, and thriving in massive creator-based ecosystem now are very very slim. Create your own web site, and own your own platform, because if you&#x27;re an unknown or independent artist, major platforms aren&#x27;t promoting you as well as a more dedicated online presence can.