Content Creation's Dark and Golden Age

The marketing team at Patreon was not the first to use the phrase "A Dark and Golden Age," but they did employ it well, describing the current state of affairs for content creators.

The creator monetization platform surveyed a little more than 1,000 content creators and some 2,000 "fans" and found a content creation conundrum.

"The major platforms are built around an old internet philosophy that 'Content is King,' wrote the report's authors, "But there's a problem with that philosophy: by centering everything around 'content' these platforms have commoditized the people who actually make the work."

TikTokification & The Algorithm

While I would argue that the "old internet philosophy" is not necessarily wrong, the Patreon folk and the creators surveyed make a good point.

In the past, a social media content creator could establish a community. Followers and fans would see every post in a feed built on voluntary relationships. Fans kept up with the creators they cared about, and creators had a reliable audience.

Enter TikTok. The Chinese social media platform took a more egalitarian approach, nearly discarding relationships and instead focusing on attention. Its algorithm tries to predict which posts a given user will engage with whether or not that user follows the post's creator.

This TikTokification means that "57% of fans' time on TikTok is spent watching work from creators they don't follow," according to the Patreon survey.

Instagram, Facebook, and pretty much every other social media platform followed suit, spreading attention-seeking algorithms and serving what sells. Some 60% of content creators believe that Instagram, for example, no longer shows fans their best work. And about half (51%) of creators think it is more difficult to reach fans now than it was a few years ago.

Social media's algorithm is not the only one impacting content creators. The "State of Creator" report focused heavily on video content, with just 22% using writing or blogging as a creative "mode." But there is evidence that blogging has been hit hard, too.

In this case, the algorithms in question are search algorithms and AI-powered search results.

"Creators have begun to realize that they don't actually own the relationships with their own fans on many of the major platforms. They don't have emails or contact info. They don't have any way to continue reaching those fans if they ever go somewhere else. The platforms keep all of that for themselves.

This disconnect is the "dark" in the "dark and golden age."

The Direct-to-Fan Market

The "golden" part of the phrase, according to Patreon, refers to the rise of direct-to-fan communities. The conclusion makes sense for a Patreon report because it is a strong case for the platform's services.

In spite of the potential for bias, the findings seem right. Content creators of every type must find ways to "own" or "control" their fan relationships if they are to enjoy the golden parts of the creator economy.