IT'S THE CREATOR ECONOMY

DON'T BE STUPID

Happy Monday War & Peaceniks. Today, let’s get creative - with the Creator Economy.

Last week, Dax Shepard signed an $80 Million exclusive deal for his podcast, Armchair Expert, with Wondery, the podcast studio Amazon acquired for $300 million in 2020. In case you’re confused right now: Yes, this 👆 Dax Shepard-Amazon deal is a Creator Economy story.

By Hollywood standards, Dax Shepard is not a huge star. He started this podcast, in his attic on a lark, on his own, after a recent movie, CHiPS, failed. I don’t italicize “on his own” because starting a podcast is either hard or brave. Five million available podcasts is proof that starting a podcast is neither of those. I use italics because podcasting is the perfect example of a large and influential Media segment that almost no one thinks is part of the Creator Economy. And that proves the core thesis of this piece: The Creator Economy is both very different and much bigger than most people think.

The corporate Media industrial complex will continue to contract. As it does, the Creator ecosystem will fill that void - taking over those audiences and those revenues.

To understand why and how, you must understand the full extent of the expanding Creator industry and the fast-changing rules by which it runs. Below, I will endeavor to convey those rules, and the evolution of the Creator Economy.

Even if someone is already famous when they join the Creator Economy, they are still a Creator. Any actor, athlete, chef, comedian, artist, or model who starts a podcast, a YouTube series, or even a TikTok, without big Media backing, is a Creator. Podcasters who self-fund their shows are also Creators, even if/when they do so well they become famous and wealthy. YouTubers who master the algorithm, who get tens of millions of subs, launch packaged goods product lines, and make multi-million-dollar deals with corporate streaming platforms… are Creators. Running an independent, self-funded IP business makes you a Creator, even if you’re rich or get rich doing it.

Dax’s massive payout is just the latest in an ever-extending line of huge, eight-to-nine-figure deals with Creators from big corporate gatekeeper Media companies.

Yes, Joe Rogan is a millionaire. But he wasn’t when he started his podcast - now the biggest in the world - and he was making $30 million per year on that indie podcast long before Spotify came along. Which is precisely why Spotify wanted him so badly, and why so many huge Media companies are clamoring to do enormous deals with similar Creators like the Smartless guys. They know something I’ve been professing for a while: Increasingly, Creators are generating audiences just as large, and far more engaged, as gatekeeper-led content.

This data also ratifies another key truth: The Creator Economy is much bigger than Influencer Marketing.

According to Goldman Sachs, the Creator Economy is, today, a quarter-trillion-dollar-per-year industry, growing to half a trillion in the next few years.

If you’re still wondering how that 👆 can be, or if you already know this 👆 but want to know more, read on... 👇