How Spotify helped start the Creator Economy

@jackconte, CEO of Patreon, was once a full-time professional musician. He was comfortably making over $100k per year from iTunes sales alone, not to mention other direct sales of his music.

Then along came Spotify.

Spotify is a wonderful product for consumers.

For under $10/month (at the time), you have any song in your pocket, ready to play in an instant. The ease of it was almost magic.

Spotify solved for music distribution by removing almost every barrier between a listener and the song.

Spotify's innovation around music distribution created a differential in the industry though, between the distribution of the music, and the economics of the music industry.

Now the music is instantly available, but instead of 70c - $2 per song purchase going to the artist, they get a meagre fraction of a cent per listen.

Jack can no longer make a living from his craft.

This was a tough time for musicians making money from online sales.

The difficulty that came from this differential, however, was the spark that brought us Kickstarter and Patreon. The first mainstream platforms introducing the creator economy to us.

For the first time ever, creators now have the power to make a living with their craft, by selling directly to fans online, globally. It's accessible to almost anyone.

(btw if you like this thread, follow me for more: @sneub)

Moral of the story?

As innovation happens around one area, look for the differentials it creates, and the flow on effects. This is where massive opportunity arises.