Comment by dewey
4 years ago
> Creative work is currently having its sources of income decimated, from all sides. We should get used to reminiscing.
This is just anecdotal but I see a lot of very niche creative people making money that they wouldn't have made before through YouTube, Discord, Patreon, Gumroad etc.
I think the opposite is true, while in the past it was maybe PayPal there's a lot of ways to make money online that's very approachable for everyone.
It's still very hard to actually bridge the gap between putting something out there and getting people to pay for it. All those platforms did was expand the lucky few from .1% to 1% of people trying. A big jump, but few people make enough to cover the costs, much less live on it.
Kye, Completely agree with this. Making it big as a creative remains elusive for but a few, and may actually be harder today due to your point (this plus the fact that powerful creative tools are in so many more people hands thus we have a glut/logjam of talent being overlooked).
Arguably a lot of people buy into the buzz around becoming a Tik-Tok, YouTube, or whatever star when the reality is that it's about as likely for most as becoming a Hollywood star is.
Whatever the form, content by itself just doesn't pay a lot for most and never has. I just finished a new edition of a book of mine. It's valuable for "branding" (ugh term I know). But I'll directly make less money than from cranking out a blog post for some company.
Ghaff, some good points too. And am I reading you right; you're saying you could (are) potentially earn more from writing a (paid) blog post than from your own book?
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The niche stuff is definitely happening. As are new ways to monetize; but online only. What is certainly being eroded that cannot be achieved online is live performance. Include in that phrase what you will. But those opportunities are currently almost zero internationally. What the long term effects of this are is hard to predict but human to human emotional contact is imperative to our survival.
"Live" as in-the-moment or "Live" as being in the same vicinity/venue?
The former is still very much booming, and I don't see why the latter would go anywhere.
""Live" as in-the-moment or "Live" as being in the same vicinity/venue?"
In the flesh live, people together experiencing something collectively.
"I don't see why the latter would go anywhere"
There's an ongoing pandemic and during it the vast majority of venues where people can experience performance or sport collectively are and remain closed. During this time the income normally generated has understandably ceased. Many places may remain permanently closed, including historical outdoor events.
I do eventually expect a move toward normality but it's going to take many years. In the meantime we can add online live & reminiscing in lieu of the 'real thing'.