The Creator Economy Just Went Pro … But Don’t Celebrate Yet
The Interactive Advertising Bureau and Harvard Business School just released a report that should make every independent author, musician, and artist sit up and take notice.
According to their findings, the number of full-time creators in the United States exploded from about 200,000 in 2020 to roughly 1.5 million in 2024. That’s a 7.5× increase in only four years.
This is the point where you’re supposed to clap. Articles from Axios and Business Insider frame these findings as the dawn of a golden age for creators; when the internet finally delivered on its promise to democratize art.
But if you’ve been paying attention to how digital media really works, you’ll see a different story; a tale not of liberation, but corporate consolidation.
Because the IAB doesn’t represent creators. It represents advertisers. When Harvard Business School partners with them to produce a glossy white paper on creator job growth, what they’re celebrating is the successful absorption of independent creators into the ad-driven corporate economy.
A million and a half full-time creators doesn’t equate to a million and a half independent professionals. It means 1.5M contractors, affiliates, and employees-in-all-but-name who depend on platform algorithms and opaque payout systems for survival.
The difference between a job and a business is ownership. But the vast majority of creators don’t own anything: neither their platforms, nor their data; not even the audiences they think they’ve built.
If all of this seems oddly familiar, it’s because authors went through the same song and dance a decade ago. Kindle Direct Publishing was supposed to make writers free. What it did instead was make Amazon the world’s largest publisher by volume. Today’s YouTubers, TikTokers, and Instagram sensations are running through the same maze.
Yes, the number of full-time creators is rising, but so are the number of people burned out, shadow-banned, or demonetized for reasons they’ll never understand.
The IAB report boasts that creators now generate $25 billion a year in ad revenue for brands. That’s how you know their creator economy isn’t built around art or storytelling. What the megacorps want is a steady churn of content that keeps eyeballs moving between ads.
Once again, the sage internet wisdom applies: If you’re not the customer, you’re the product.
No one platform can give you independence. True creative freedom only comes from owning your relationship with your audience. Email lists, direct sales, crowdfunded releases, physical editions; anything that cuts out Big Tech middlemen, is your friend.
If you’re a writer, that means thinking like a publisher. Finish your book. Hire your own editor. Commission your own cover. Sell directly when you can. Use platforms as tools, not as partners. The day will come when they pull the rug with a rules change, and those who’ve built outside the walls will be the only ones left standing.
The creators who’ll survive the next contraction won’t be the neo-serfs who optimized for the robot. They’ll be the artisans who learned how to build business models the algo can’t touch, with a loyal audience, true ownership, and real creative sovereignty.
So yes, the creator economy just went pro. But don’t pop the champagne just yet. When the world’s advertisers start eyeing you like wolves drooling over sheep, remember: You’re not a content producer; you’re a creator.
What’s more, a creator in the older, truer sense of a craftsman who answers to a higher standard than engagement metrics. The platforms can’t own beauty, and despite their best efforts, they never will.
Book III of my dark fantasy cycle is now funded! But we’re just getting started. Claim exclusive perks, get the new book before anyone else, and fund our first concept art Stretch Goal!
Drawing: Marcelo Orsi Blanco
Back The Specter of Empire on BackerKit now:
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.