The creator economy is in crisis. Now let’s fix it.

Its always the case of the chicken and egg problem. You can say that YouTube or other platforms are not paying their creators properly. That's the truth. But there is no clear solution.

If a creator were to move to another platform, would the subscribers follow them?

That is not guaranteed. Maybe 10 or 15% of their fans would but the rest will just move on.

Why? Because of convenience. Its much easier to go to YouTube to watch videos from all the channels that I subscribe to than to remember where each creator is currently hosting their videos.

For each creator that moves to another smaller platform, I would have to go out of my way to remember where they are now publishing their videos, courses, so on. Multiply that by 100 if you are an avid YouTube fan like me for example and the situation becomes unmanageable.

A good example is Joe Rogan. When he was on YouTube , I was sometimes watching some of his episodes, not because I necessarily agreed with his views but because the topic discussed was interesting or the guest was somebody I wanted to learn more about.

Since he moved to Spotify, I have maybe watched 15 minutes of 1 episode in the last 12 months and I haven't bothered going to Spotify to see if I had missed something interesting.
I have heard that from other people as well. Friction can be a problem.

It's the same thing with Amazon, they treat their workers poorly, they cut corners, pay near zero taxes yet people use the platform because it is convenient. If you want you can purchase the same thing from a smaller retailer but some of them don't have websites, or the inventory is wrong or you have to call them, or its a lot more expensive and they don't deliver.

Its not that Amazon is the best shopping experience, its just that it is just good enough for people to not bother looking elsewhere.

Another example, if I subscribe to a new channel on YouTube, I can subscribe instantly without the need to confirm my email address, I get notified if a new video is published, there are automated subtitles and comments with additional info about the videos. If I don't like the creator after a while, I can simply unsubscribe and that's the end of it.

If every creator had their own platform, I would have to find them first, which could be a challenge. Then I would have to create a new account on the creator's platform, verify my email address and trust that the creator is not going to spam my email with ads or worse, sell the email list to make a quick dollar.

Then I have to remember and bookmark that new platform. If the creator is already established, there is a good chance that they won't move platform regularly(although we have seen some cases last year where people moved from Twitch to Mixer in exchange of a big pile of cash) , but if a creator is just starting out , it is in their best interest to test the waters in terms of platform to find the best one tailored to their needs.

Do you go with the ones who has the lowest fees or the bigger audience? Better social features, better UX, bigger commissions? So the creator, I imagine will either publish to many platforms or bounce around from one platform to another until they find the one that satisfy their needs. In the meantime even if I like a creator, I am not about to create 6 different accounts on 6 different platforms. That would be lunacy.

Finally, I don't like the article's undertone related to blockchain. Let me be honest for second here, I like crypto and I like blockchain, but not everything can be solved by it.

Don't get me wrong I am happy that creators are banding together, working together and building businesses together. I simply don't think that blockchain or crypto protocols make this easier or better.

Maybe it does and maybe I am not aware of it but until it's been actually proven, then it is too early to tell.

This part hooked me:

Numerous startups are attempting to help creators set up their standalone, owned properties online; earn more from fewer, truer fans; and lessen their dependence on social media platforms. But unless we radically change the foundation of the creator economy—how creators find and connect to a community in the first place—these solutions are incremental at best, and don’t create a fundamental unlock for the issues plaguing the current creator economy.

With Meeps we're definitely trying to do the first part ("help creators set up their standalone, owned properties online"). But the second part is definitely a harder nut to crack.

NFTs have opened doors to a new Creator economy. Especially NFTs that include engagement. Trading on exchanges, discussion on Discord, YouTube channels, it is amazing what I'm seeing emerge in this space. Everything that was digital could be copied until NFTs. Now you can define provenance, ownership, rarity, and many other attributes via NFTs. I'm excited for creators and this new opportunity for them!