Building the Middle Class of the Creator Economy
I have long felt this way about movies, books, and music. I don’t have data to back it up, but it feels like there was a lot more quality, middle-budget content in the arts a few decades ago, vs. recent years in which everything seems to be a blockbuster or a flop. People dream of striking it rich, not of making a respectable living. It’s like startup culture has infiltrated nearly everything; if it’s not going to make you a billionaire, it’s not worth spending time on.<p>Some recent exceptions that make me feel hope for the middle class of the arts: Etsy, Netflix & Hulu, the world of podcasting. In all three of these places you can see people trying out ideas and making a living. It’s true that the businesses themselves – Netflix, Hulu, Spotify, Amazon, etc. – are decidedly not middle class, the content creators on their platforms seem to be. (I can’t think of equivalents in books or music... SoundCloud? I got nothing for books.)