Participating in Change for Good
Economics is a complicated subject, but you're going to have to know a little bit about it if you're going to get to the moon. And it might well be the moon that you're aiming for, but first, you'll need to start a business with both feet planted firmly on the ground.
In the coming weeks, I'm going to explore how to build a brand in the creator economy and have it take flight, through physical retail, e-commerce and decentralised commerce. I'm going to look at the available opportunities for both creators and their communities, and how together they fit into this emerging economic ideology; one which offers "an escape from centralised corporations, where no single entity wields absolute control, where online platforms compete for creators, and where creators are subject to the demands of their community." (Forbes)
But change means effort. So let's start with why your participation is important.
Decentralising Opportunity
As fun as they are to collect, you can't buy dinner with a 100 red hearts. No number of blue thumbs will pay your rent. And what the major music and video streaming sites pay artists, pales in comparison to the costs of producing and marketing music and video as an independent content creator.
And yet we relentlessly flood music and video streaming sites and social media platforms with content, in exchange for a following. A following that aren't given much of an opportunity, if any, to contribute directly or with ease, to the artists that they love. Even if they wanted to.
Decentralisation suggests that we reconsider this logic.
Sustainable Sovereignty
As a sovereign individual in the creator economy, you alone hold the keys to your identity, your content and your data; you are actively able to participate in its store (create, contract, sustain, govern); without the involvement of a middleman or institution; using the simple frameworks and open-source tools that are freely available to you; within an emancipated and sustainable community.
The libertarian philosophy behind this means active learning and participation in change, and that's not within reach of most, for so many reasons, a big one being fiat debt. The opportunity to have just enough isn't within reasonable reach. And it's not because we don't work hard, it's because the rules of the currency that we work for, are barbed.
Maybe, as much as people want to pay for music and art, the current economic and business models just aren't designed to let them.
Putting value to music again
Making music has become less and less of a viable career choice over the years. This isn't entirely the fault of record labels and the digital streaming giants. Radio streamed music for free long before Napster did. And we pirated music ourselves by recording it from the radio, onto our tape deck and making our own mix tapes long before we made digital playlists.
Napster gave us smarter technology to do what we were already doing. Music is made to share. And as much as the technology was brilliant and paved the way for an entirely new industry in music and video, it was also flawed, because you can't keep skimming the cream without refilling the milk. For sustainable sovereignty in the creator economy, we need to figure out how to reasonably replenish the faucets from which music flows.
Platforms of Support
Musicians have a finite number of live performances in them, a finite number of songs that they can write. Their earning window is small with high output and high risk; and if music creation isn't sustainable for creators, they won't be able to invest as much time, equipment and energy into its creation.
Thinking Differently
The first artists used shells, stone and paint to record symbolic thought. As humanity evolved, and our resources and stories changed, so did the way in which artists stored our evidence. From blowing into the pierced thigh bone of a baby bear, to minting an NFT using a Dapp, the evolution of music and art has been extreme, groundbreaking and fearless.
If the universe exists despite us, the Metaverse exists because of us, and in it a world with potential not yet seen, not yet heard, not even imagined.
Let's start exploring.
