Reports Social

Re-creating the creator economy

Mark Mulligan, Tim Mulligan, Karol Severin, Hanna Kahlert, Srishti Das, Kriss Thakrar, Ashleigh Millar, Tatiana Cirisano, Annie Langston and Richard Broadhurst
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20,000 foot view:  Streaming first democratised the means of consumption, then distribution, and now production. Though the promise of the long tail may not have materialised quite as expected, long-tail and mid-tail creators are now a central component of the digital-entertainment economy. Their role will augment further, propelled by meta trends, such as the emergence of creation as entertainment, the fragmentation of fandom, and the growing prominence of micro scenes.

Key insights 

  • Social platforms            redefining entertainment value chains, using            for content creation, distribution, and            thus making creators the fuel            the digital-entertainment engine
  • Creators are            by shared characteristics, such as            creatively and financially independent, owning            own rights and pursuing success
  • Audiences are            creators too, with            doing some            of content creation and            using            tools in social platforms. Only            consumers only ever passively consume           
  • Creators are            to define their behaviours based            the demands on the platforms,            in being ‘always on’, and            carries many burdens
  • There is            platform / creator tension: platforms            scale pooled from individual creators,            creators want remuneration and recognition 
  • Platforms must            a cultural balancing act between            the needs of their audiences            of their creators
  • Creators have            dependence – merely renting space,            with tenancy rights, and often            the whims of algorithms
  • Music creators            enough distribution and platform options,            what they really need now            more ways to find and            their audiences
  • Sustainable remuneration            a recurrent issue, with many            video apps and many creators            openly critical of the perceived            of transparency
  • Discoverability is            key challenge for podcast creators,            a number of platforms making            to address this
  • Social media            has U-turned audiences from observation            participation
  • Sports stars            using creator platforms as a            of extending their brand reach            discovering new audiences

Companies and brands mentioned in this report: Acast, Amp, Amazon, Amazon Music, Amazon, Apple, Bandcamp, Buzzfeed, Buzzfeed Unsolved, ByteDance, Case Closed with Bailey Sarian, CDBaby, Cem Bolukbasi, Chargebee, Charlie Puth, Devon Cole, Disciple Media, Discord, Drive to Survive, Distrokid,            Facebook, Fortnite, Haters Back Off, Hulu, Instagram, Kenny Beats, KSI, Lando Norris, Logan Paul, McLaren, Mark Zuckerberg, Meta, Miranda Sings, NetEase Cloud Music, Netflix, Pico, PinkPanthress, Patreon, Prime Video, ProCreate, RADAR Podcasts, Russ, The Last Dance, Sadie Jean, Shorts, Snapchat, SoundCloud, Spotify, Stem, The Race Media, Tencent Music Entertainment, TikTok, Twitch, Twitter,            YouTube, Zype