Just How Unequal is the Creator Economy?
The creator economy is hot right now, but the gains aren’t evenly distributed.
While technology has made global distribution effortless, discovery remains challenging. Below, a look at music streaming, Gini coefficients, and platform business models.
Distribution vs. Discovery
If the press releases are to be trusted, technology is democratizing everything. It’s never been easier for someone to start a newsletter, podcast, or teach an online class. As they battle for attention, giants like Facebook and Spotify and startups like Circle and Substack are wooing creators and their content. Technology has made global distribution effortless. Whether anybody wants to listen or can find you is another matter.
Gini Coefficients
The creator economy is booming, according to research by Stripe. Companies like Clubhouse, Substack, and Twitter use Stripe Connect to enable ticket sales, tipping, subscriptions, and other small-scale monetization. To get a pulse on the creator economy, Stripe indexed its top fifty creator platforms. In aggregate, they’ve onboarded 670,000 creators and aggregate payouts are approaching $10 billion. In 2020, the number of users grew 48% y/y in while the number of creators earning…
