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The creator economy is 8x bigger than you thought it was.

A new study about the state of the Creator Economy shows a trend for moving away from social platforms, and into private audience spaces

With ever-changing algorithms, over-saturated feeds and often paychecks that leave much to be desired, the Creator Economy is not for the faint-hearted.

However, a new study has shown that more freelance designers, artists and other creatives are starting to work independently for themselves, and that there's now a trend towards eschewing monetizing via traditional social platforms, in favour of platforms that allow creators to earn directly from fans (OnlyFans, Substack, Patreon, etc). The era of the Independent Creator is here.

Independent creatives who are not beholden to agency rules or in-house methodology, are usually the creatives who produce the most outstanding work - we've certainly seen that at Talenthouse. At Talenthouse, we have access to +3m creatives around the world, who can provide you with stunning visuals you simply won't get anywhere else. Pop an email to talkto@talenthouse.com if you'd like to ask how we could work together, or fill out the form below.

The report also points to a previous estimate that there are 50 million creators working today, within the parameters of social media platforms and 'Big Tech'. However, throw independent creators in the mix and that number appears more like 8x that figure, to the tune of 400 million.

Commissioned by Mighty Networks (incidentally the type of platform that the report refers to), and conducted by Nonfiction Research and Bodacious Strategy Studio, the report analyzed the work life of 1,624 earning creators.

“While some estimate that there are 50 million creators today feeding the social media content machine,” the report states, “Independent creators armed with this new creator manifesto (and easier network effect tools) dramatically expand the total number of people who can choose this path.”

According to the research, 57% of creators see direct revenue through features like subscriptions as the future of their industry, rather than revenue they'd make from sponsored deals across social media platforms.  “In this model, Big Social serve as feeders and funnellers, not feudal overlords," states the report.

Convinced? If not, these figures may sway you. According to the report, for a creator to bank $1000 a month you would need either 2 million monthly YouTube views, 100,000 Instagram followers, or just 229 Substack subscribers or 224 Patreon supporters. Here the numbers speak for themselves.

By fostering communities and creating more opportunities for engagement, these creators side-step the need for big social followings. In this new model less is more, with creators free to post more meaningful content less frequently than needed on Big Social platforms.