Watch “Creator Economy Amplified: The State of the Creator Economy.”
TL;DR
- Jim Louderback, editor & publisher of “Inside the Creator Economy,” joins veteran journalist Robin Raskin and Tyler Chou, founder & CEO of Tyler Chou Law for Creators, for an exclusive Q&A on the evolving challenges and opportunities within the creator economy.
- The creator economy is booming, projected to grow from $250 billion to $500 billion worldwide. However, platforms like YouTube and TikTok are cutting back on creator support, leaving many “accidental entrepreneurs” to navigate the industry’s complexities alone.
- Creators are diversifying their income streams beyond traditional platforms. Chou emphasizes the importance of sustainable monetization strategies, including launching products, courses, and consumer goods.
- Artificial intelligence offers significant benefits for content creation, such as efficient editing tools. However, the rise of deepfakes and synthetic media poses new challenges for protecting digital identity and intellectual property.
- Understanding and engaging with the audience is crucial for growth. New tools like the Superfan app are emerging to help creators connect with their most dedicated fans and develop content that resonates with their community.
In an era where digital content is king, the creator economy has emerged as a vibrant and essential ecosystem, empowering individuals to turn their creativity into careers. Yet, as this burgeoning economy continues to expand at an unprecedented pace, creators find themselves navigating a sea of opportunities fraught with challenges.
As part of NAB Amplify’s “Creator Economy Amplified” series, we sat down with Jim Louderback, editor and publisher of Inside the Creator Economy; veteran journalist Robin Raskin, founder and CEO of Virtual Events Group; and Tyler Chou, founder and CEO of Tyler Chou Law for Creators, to discuss the current state and evolving dynamics of the creator economy, including the challenges and opportunities facing today’s digital creators. Watch the full conversation in the video at the top of the page.
The Growth and Challenges of the Creator Economy
In addition to a thriving YouTube channel, Tyler Chou, The Creators’ Attorney, the veteran Hollywood lawyer represents dozens of creators as part of her “accidental” agency, and advises countless others on strategies for growing their business.
Creators are increasingly on their own, Chou says, describing a climate where “these accidental entrepreneurs” are having their IP stolen left and right and struggle with securing payments from partnerships. “I have two creators right now who have six-figure brand deals that have not been paid. So they’re sort of adrift — on nice yachts — but kind of adrift at sea.”
Louderback, who alongside Raskin is leading the Creator Lab at the 2024 NAB Show, says this lack of support for creators is the biggest shift he’s seen over the past year. “Goldman Sachs says [the creator economy is worth] $250 billion worldwide, growing to $500 billion worldwide. Yet, if you look at the platform’s YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Snap, they’re all laying off their creator support teams.”
This lack of support means more burnout for creators. “Creating right now is a hamster wheel of effort,” Louderback describes, “And creators are getting burned out and they’re being pushed in so many different directions.”
A Rapid Maturation
Despite this shift, the creative economy is rapidly maturing, Raskin contends, pointing to the astronomical number of people who self-identify as creators, as documented by The Washington Post series, “The Creator Economy,” as well as the proliferation of college courses on the subject. “When colleges have after-school clubs on being a creator, you’re seeing a maturing industry, and it’s maturing very quickly.”
This evolution is driving creators to diversify, Raskin continues. “They’re realizing that a platform like YouTube, TikTok will only take you so far.”
Creators need to know how to make money in a more sustainable way, Chou urges. “Not just heads down, making videos, depending on AdSense and brand deals,” she says. “I help them launch products, courses and actual consumer goods. They’re starting to think about, ‘Okay, I’ve been on YouTube for a few years now. I have a million plus subs. Now what?’”
Embracing AI and New Technologies
Artificial intelligence is also helping to shape the creator economy, both as a production assistant and as a possible foe in the form of deepfakes.
Will AI kill the creator? “If you asked me a year ago, I would say maybe, but now I’m actually very optimistic about how AI can augment and supplement creators,” Chou says, pointing to editing tools like Opus Clip, which uses AI to break long videos up into shorter segments in less than a minute. “With my editor? That would take him a week-and-a-half.”
Chou compares generative AI to streaming in terms of disruption. “I think we all say now that streaming is better, right? Like, the death grip that the studios had on the distribution of content has been as been expanded with streaming,” she explains. “And I think that’s what AI will do.”
But concerns about the challenges of protecting digital identity and intellectual property in an era dominated by deep fakes and synthetic media continue to proliferate, Raskin notes. “Digital identity, protecting of your digital IP is a huge problem,” she says, underscoring the need for robust solutions to protect creators’ work and identity.
Building and Monetizing Audience
Figuring out the best places to cultivate community to help reduce the stress of constantly needing to post across multiple platforms remains one of the biggest tasks creators face, says Louderback. “I think it’s a real challenge. And I don’t see it getting any better right now, unfortunately.”
He emphasizes the importance of understanding and engaging with one’s audience for growth and monetization.
“If you want to grow your audience and monetize, you need to know your audience,” he advises. “So think about your community. Think about your audience. Think about the people who tune in every day and every week to look at your videos. How do you get to know them?”
There are a number of new tools coming out that are designed to help creators understand their audience, Louderback says, including the Superfan app, which helps creators develop a creative network of their most ardent supporters.
These tools, he says, “will help you really understand what your biggest fans want, will help you move those fans in their own communities, and help you figure out how to create things specifically for them that they’ll want to pay for.”
Chou advocates for creators to establish their platforms, emphasizing the importance of maintaining independence from external platforms. “I’m actually in the process of moving my community [from YouTube] on to Mighty Networks, so that I can have more one-on-one connection with them,” she details, describing a newly-launched product from the company called People Magic. “They match people of similar interests together to talk — I think it’s fantastic,” she says.
“I think creators should create on their own land, not on rented land,” Chou advises, encouraging creators to view themselves as businesses capable of generating diverse revenue streams beyond content creation. “Because we have to realize all the platforms are rented. If you have your own community, your own website, your own email list, that’s something that’s yours, and they can’t be taken from you.”
