Tag: creator economy
Big Opinion, Big Budget
The New York Times’ choice to publish a video op-ed by the CEO of Patreon points at why exec-produced video op-eds might be a bad idea.
Build Your Own Gumball
Considering how the user benefits when a mature project goes fully open-source—even one with the baggage of something like Gumroad.
The Finance Team Lost One
For years, many of Apple’s most consumer-unfriendly decisions have felt like an extension of a revenue-optimization strategy at constant risk of backfiring. Thanks to a bracing legal decision, now it has.
Gunkroad
The creator-economy service Gumroad decided to open-source its platform at a suspiciously convenient time. (And even “open source” might be stretching it.)
The Thrill Was Never There
A famous punk-music personality reveals he was in it for the money—a revelation that has upset fans. But to be fair, it was the algorithm that pushed him in that direction.
Not Ready For The Camera
Why hasn’t video completely killed text-based social media, despite social platforms clearly favoring it? Simple: By its very nature, it excludes voices from the discussion.
Platforms Built On Quicksand
Given the choice between protecting creators and protecting a business relationship with a dominant, toxic company, Patreon chooses the business relationship. Maybe they shouldn’t.
Losing Sight Of Creators
Instead of building ways to block ads, we need to make the case for the tech-minded to build creator-supporting ideas. Creators would help.
Remaking Podcasts For Text
Podcasts are far and away the great example of how RSS can empower creators. Today’s thought experiment: How can we bring these benefits to written content?
The Open Letter Still Works
Our final year-end Tedium award honors an open letter that hopefully encourages more creator-economy activism in 2024.
Microculture vs. macroculture
In which I comment on Ted Gioia’s thoughts on the future of culture.
The Obvious Warning Sign
The decision by Unity to screw over its developers, even if they reverse it, points at deeper unresolved issues in the digital economy.
That’s some pretty expensive market research
When people spend big VC money to discover what they could have found just reading my blog.
Patreon earnings per patron and “1,000 true fans”
I look at Patreon earnings per patron, and how possible it is to acquire 1,000 true fans.
The number of patrons per Patreon project is log-normally distributed
What it says in the title.
Life in Patreonia: Inequality in the “creator economy”
If Patreon were a country, it would be the most unequal country in the world.
No Computers Allowed
Thinking about what, exactly, remote work and the creator economy looked like before all these computers got in the way.