The Creator Exodus Proves Neopatronage Has Arrived
When the first wave of YouTube monetization rolled out in the late aughts, everyone thought they’d cracked the code. All you had to do was upload your video, tag it right, and wait for the algorithm to bless you with a living.
Fast forward to the 2010s, and a new wave of self-publshing authors hailed Amazon as an escape from the dying oldpub monopoly.
Whether in video, books, or music, the new platforms made it sound like they were offering freedom. But what they really gave us was dependency. Every creator economy tool came with the same hidden clause: We own your audience.
Fifteen years later, the bill is coming due. And as the latest Epidemic Sound 2025 report confirms, creators have learned their lesson. The supposed democratization of art through tech platforms turned out to be the same old feudalism, only this time the lords were faceless algorithms instead of record labels.
And now, the vassals are revolting.
According to Epidemic Sound, 95% of creators now use direct-to-fan models. Contra Big Tech’s hopes, that’s not a fad. Creators have finally realized that platforms aren’t their partners; they’re landlords. A generation of indies built their livelihoods on rented land, only to show up one day and find the locks changed.
Neopatronage, a term I coined years ago to describe creators’ pivot to direct audience engagement, has arrived as the standard creative economy model.
The principle is simple: Cut out the digital middlemen. Return to the ancient, tried-and-true relationship between creator and supporter.
In the Renaissance, it was a duke or the bishop commissioning a chapel fresco. Today, it’s readers backing a serialized novel, viewers sending superchats, and listeners buying albums directly from the artist’s page.
In other words, it’s patronage minus the gatekeepers.
Epidemic’s numbers tell a story that Silicon Valley can’t hand wave away.
98% of creators are expanding beyond their primary platforms, explicitly to hedge against algorithm volatility
95% of full-and part-time creators are using direct-to-fan models, specifically to achieve platform-indepdendence
93% say they now understand licensing and ownership. Because they finally have to.
That’s what a mature market looks like. When creators stop asking, “What does the algorithm want?” and start to ask, “How do I own my work?” you’ve got the recipe for a mass creative exodus.
Critics will focus on another headline number: 91% of creators now use A.I. tools. The corporate press frames it as automation, as if creators are being replaced.
Working creators, on the other hand, see A.I. not as competition but as a weapon.
Much as the printing press replaced scribes but birthed an entire publishing industry, A.I. is flattening barriers between idea and execution.
Note that we’re not talking about slop mills flooding KDP in a doomed attempt to squeeze the last juice from the old model. Nor are these amateurs copying prompts to generate Ring footage memes. The creators who master these tools are cutting production time by an average of 30% up front. And that increased output is helping them reclaim sovereignty from the platforms that used to control them.
The main takeaway is that when 95% of creators say they’re monetizing directly, patronage models can no longer be dismissed as grifts or “eBegging”. The creator economy has graduated from side hustle to full-fledged parallel market.
But how did the big platforms lose their once-inescapable grip on creators?
The data show creators prioritizing three core elements of Neopatronage:
Financial stability
Creative freedom
Loyal audiences.
Notice what’s missing?
Algorithmic approval.
Big Tech platforms promised exposure. It turns out what creators really needed was ownership.
The old model runs on eroding creator and customer ownership. What’s replacing it is a market built on direct loyalty: a network of micro-economies in which creators answer only to their supporters, not to opaque corporate policy.
In other words, Neopatronage is unfolding exactly as predicted. We now have a decentralized pipeline, driven by relationships between creators and audiences instead of mass-market manipulation.
Old media executives spent decades mocking crowdfunding. They called it a crutch for the untalented.
But look at the numbers now. Nearly 20% of Neopatronage adopters are preparing to launch a business within the next year. At last, we are getting aspirants off the bench and in the game.
In the old system, gatekeepers were filters that decided who got an audience. In Neopatronage, the audience are amplifiers. It’s a return to the natural economy of art: Those who value beauty sustain it.
If that sounds idealistic, consider that even amid widespread burnout and algorithm fatigue, creators report higher satisfaction when they’re supported directly. The old platforms offered the false promise of control. Neopatronage fosters real connection.
And Neopatronage gives patrons greater satisfaction, as well. Because when they find a creator who treats them like people instead of metrics, they stay.
Epidemic Sound’s report calls this phenomenon “the great platform shift.” They’re right. But more than an innovation, Neopatronage marks a triumphant return. The internet is remembering what it was supposed to be before the Silicon Valley robber barons built their walled gardens.
The middlemen are still trying to convince everyone they’re indispensable. But the numbers don’t lie. 95% of creators already know better. Gatekeepers are obsolete. And creators and patrons will inherit the future.
Neopatronage isn’t coming. It’s here.
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Brian Niemeier is a best-selling novelist, editor, and Dragon Award winner with over a decade in newpub. For direct, in-person writing and editing insights, join his Patreon.