Navigating the Creator Economy

I hear from a lot of social media teams that they “ask for forgiveness, not permission” to use songs that they don’t have the rights to on TikTok and Instagram. Turns out forgiveness is expensive. Last week, UMG sued Quince for copyright infringement for including unlicensed music in Instagram and TikTok posts. While I’ve talked about brands being sued by music labels before, this one is interesting because it also holds the brand responsible for sponsored influencer posts that use unlicensed music. UMG has identified a whopping 130 works infringed by Quince. The exposure in statutory damages alone is over $20M. I asked marketing lawyer Rob Freund what brands should take away from this lawsuit: “The Quince case is the latest in a string of cases against brands using unlicensed popular songs on social media, both on brand-owned pages and via influencers. The takeaway is that brands cannot use the general popular music libraries that the platforms provide for any commercial content (which includes any posting on brand-owned pages) and cannot treat influencer content as a copyright safe harbor. The platform licenses do not extend to commercial use, unless you use the designated commercial sound libraries. Any brand running a creator program needs a music licensing strategy and clear contractual guardrails for its influencers.”

Two platforms. Two completely different outcomes. Over the past year, we’ve run hundreds of KOL posts across Instagram and TikTok — and one thing is now very clear: Creative style matters more than creator size. Instagram rewards polished, cinematic, aesthetically-driven content. TikTok rewards raw, honest, UGC-style content that feels like a friend. When creators tried posting the same video across both platforms, performance dropped almost instantly But when we asked them to tailor the creative for each feed, the results changed dramatically. On Instagram, the strongest performing posts were: • cinematic lifestyle shots • color-graded, mood-driven edits • product integrated into an aspirational moment On TikTok, top performers were: • talking-head explanations • quick product demos • organic, handheld “real life” moments It’s not just a platform difference — it’s a culture difference. Instagram is curated aspiration. TikTok is unfiltered relatability. The brands that win are the ones that don’t copy-paste content, but design creative for each platform’s storytelling format. If you want consistency across IG + TikTok, the answer isn’t more influencers — it’s the right creative format on each. Happy to share more examples of how we structure IG vs TikTok briefs for our campaigns. DM me if you want to compare formats or explore what works best in your market.

"Creators are doomed because of AI." But the creators I work with are busier than ever because of these 2 skills they learnt early. Running an influencer marketing agency has taught me something crucial: AI isn't going to replace creators but creators who understand AI will replace those who don't. The smartest creators I work with have mastered 2 things: 1/ They've become vocabulary sponges The more precise you can describe what you want, the better AI becomes your tool, not your replacement. Top-performing influencers are spending time learning industry terms, design principles, psychology concepts.Because "make it trendy" gets you generic content. But "create aspirational lifestyle content using rule of thirds composition for Gen Z audiences" gets you gold. 2/ They use AI to build expertise faster Instead of fighting AI, they're asking it to teach them. "Explain the difference between aspirational and lifestyle content." "What are 10 color psychology principles I should know?" "How do luxury brands communicate exclusivity?" They're building deeper knowledge in months that used to take years. The restaurant analogy is perfect: AI gives everyone a kitchen, but we still need chefs who understand flavor profiles, presentation, and what makes people say "wow." AI isn't here to replace expertise, it's here to amplify it. What's one area of your expertise where you're building deeper vocabulary? #AI #creativity #marketing

AI is reviving fundamental questions about how information is valued. In the late ’90s, we saw what happened when the ethos that “information wants to be free” collided with journalism, music and film. Business models collapsed. It took decades to rebuild a sustainable foundation for creators and publishers. GenAI is now testing that foundation again. Too much content is being scraped and used to train models without a reasonable exchange of value going back to the people and companies that created it. If we don’t fix that, we don’t just put individual businesses at risk – we weaken the information ecosystem that powers creativity, commerce and democracy. Together with Almar Latour and Dow Jones I wrote for the World Economic Forum about how we protect our information ecosystem in the AI era. Our view is simple: thoughtful regulation matters, but we can’t wait for it. At Pinterest, that means defending creators’ rights, giving people more control over how AI is used, and investing in safety and governance from the start. If we want AI to expand opportunity instead of eroding trust, we have to build those safeguards now. You can read our full piece here: https://lnkd.in/gSKuX9Yq

The AI Agent Economy could look like the Creator Economy, not SaaS. We might be thinking about AI Agent pricing wrong. Instead of traditional SaaS pricing (seats, usage, API calls), what if AI Agents are more like creators - scaling their output non-linearly? Here's what I mean: SaaS pricing is linear: More seats = more revenue. But AI Agents are different - like creators, they can scale their output with near-zero marginal cost. A single agent's knowledge compounds and can serve 1 or 1000 users for basically the same cost. This parallels the creator shift: Moving from trading time (freelancing) to building assets (content). AI Agents build reusable knowledge and capabilities that improve with scale. So what changes? 1. Usage-based pricing makes less sense 2. Revenue share models become more logical 3. Pricing can align with value created, not resources used Look at creator platforms: The winners aren't selling features - they're building infrastructure for creators to scale. AI infrastructure might follow the same path. Forget API calls and tokens. The future of AI pricing might be more about sharing the upside of scalable output.

Reach is getting cheaper. Attention is getting expensive. Creator monetisation models are tightening across platforms. Distribution is being reweighted toward retention, watch depth, and repeat engagement. Surface reach is becoming less reliable. For a long time, scale alone created influence. A large audience meant predictable visibility and predictable monetisation. That relationship is changing. Platforms are increasingly rewarding content that holds attention rather than content that simply spreads. The signals that matter are becoming behavioural. How long people watch. Whether they return. Whether they stay engaged across multiple pieces of content. This shifts the economics of the creator model. Large audiences built on occasional viral spikes will find reach harder to sustain. Smaller audiences built on consistent engagement will become more durable. Influence is becoming less about how many people see you once and more about how many people choose to keep watching. In the next phase of the creator economy, the strongest creators will not necessarily be the biggest. They will be the ones people stay with. #CreatorEconomy #DigitalStrategy #AudienceGrowth #MarketingStrategy #SocialMediaStrategy

Only 4% of content creators made over $100,000 last year.[Socialmediatoday] Yet venture capital is pouring hundreds of millions into this space. What do they see that most people miss? After years in retail and sourcing, I'm fascinated by this shift in how value is created in the digital economy. The creator economy is transforming from a views-driven popularity contest into a serious business ecosystem with multiple revenue streams: 📍 Professional services now account for 36% of creator income. [WPBeginner] 📍 Digital products generate 18% of revenue. 📍 Traditional brand partnerships contribute just 11%. This explains why we're seeing major investments like Spotter's $200M YouTube creator fund [TechCrunch] and Slow Ventures' $60M bet on creators as entrepreneurs. [Business Insider] These VCs aren't investing in viral dancing videos. They're backing creators who build real businesses with diversified income. Take MrBeast or Vivian Tu - they've built empires not by chasing algorithms but by developing six or more revenue streams that complement each other. The most successful creators now operate like mini-conglomerates: 📍They create content that builds trust. 📍They leverage that trust to sell products and services. 📍They reinvest profits into building lasting assets. This model challenges everything we thought we knew about digital business. The smartest players aren't chasing views - they're building assets. What business lessons have you learned from watching how top creators operate? #CreatorEconomy #Monetization #Investing

“Creators are the startups of Hollywood.” – Neal Mohan So what does that actually mean? We’ve sat down with hundreds of creators on The Colin and Samir Show, and I’ve started to write down a four principles that embody this idea. 𝟏. 𝗪𝗲 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝗠𝗩𝗣𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝘁𝘀 — 𝗳𝗮𝘀𝘁. Startups test minimum viable products to find product-market fit. Creators do the same — we test for content-market fit. Adam Faze built a show called Bodega Run. It got 40 million views on the first episode, then started to taper. Four weeks later, he canceled it. He went from concepting, launching, finding an audience, and shutting it down faster than it takes most Hollywood meetings to get set — and it cost him just $3,500. Not because it failed, but because it taught him what didn’t scale. Creators launch, learn, and move on faster than traditional studios ever could. Making a show today requires an idea, a phone, and an internet connection. That’s basically it. 𝟐. 𝗪𝗲 𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁 𝗳𝗮𝗶𝗹𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝘀 𝗮 𝗳𝗲𝗮𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲, 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗮 𝗳𝗹𝗮𝘄. Steven Bartlett told us he has an actual “failure team.” Their entire job is to experiment, fail fast, and extract insights. That mindset is the opposite of how big studios operate. In Hollywood, failure ends projects, because it's too expensive and too high risk, so it's avoided. For creators, failure informs the next project. The faster we get there, the better. And because of how long we've all been on the internet, embarrassment is just part of the deal. So trying and failing doesn't feel as risky or scary. 𝟑. 𝗪𝗲 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗮𝘂𝗱𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲, 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗺. In traditional media, you make a show, release a season, and hope people like it. Creators do the opposite — we co-create with our audience in real time. KSI’s Reddit series is a perfect example. His fans post feedback, memes, and stories — and he reacts to them in the next video. The audience isn’t just watching; they’re shaping the content itself. That collaboration builds something more powerful than viewership — it builds community, and a sense of ownership over the content. 𝟒. 𝗪𝗲’𝗿𝗲 𝗯𝗼𝘁𝗵 𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗮-𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸𝗲𝗱 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗴𝘂𝘁-𝗱𝗿𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗻. Every creator we’ve interviewed knows their numbers — retention, click-through rate, average view duration. We study audience behavior the same way a startup studies user data. But data alone doesn’t make great content. The best creators pair what the numbers say with what their instincts feel. We’re authentic members of the internet and the platforms we create on — which gives us the instincts to understand what makes something worth watching. That combination of intuition and insight is what drives innovation in this space. Creators trust their gut to take creative risks, then use data to see if those risks paid off. If you’re creating media today, these four principles are absolutely necessary to compete.

Everyone talks about how to grow followers. Almost no one talks about how to build an audience that actually converts. Follower milestones look nice in a bio, but they do not build a business. What builds a business is trust, expertise and a focused audience that values your point of view. In the creator economy, more followers do not mean more money. I have seen creators with massive reach struggle to monetise. I have also seen creators with small but targeted audiences earn more than the big ones. The difference is positioning. The difference is clarity on who you serve and what problem you solve. Brands pay for relevance. Brands pay for buying power. Brands pay for creators who attract the right customer, not random reach. If your audience cannot afford your recommendations, your views lose value. If your content is not aligned with your niche, your growth becomes empty. Creators who win are the ones who double down on their expertise. They understand their niche, their category and their unique skill. They stand for something. They teach something. They build trust. Stop chasing followers. Start building an audience that matters. Relevance drives revenue. Trust drives monetisation. Expertise builds long term success.

Stop calling artists content creators. Let me tell you why. We’ve been busy these past 22 months listening to musicians share their stories. During this time, I’ve had the unique privilege of interviewing several artists, as part of the Today at Apple x Apple Music Spotlight series, run at the Apple BKC store in Mumbai. And here’s what I have learnt from these conversations on what makes an artist build a long, successful career: 1. AUTHENTICITY: Think of your favourite song. Not something that’s trending right now, but something you remember from last month, last year or even last decade. That song has outlived its time to turn evergreen. And that’s because these artists are creating from a point of honesty. Nearly all successful artists are making real art. Their songs tell a story, have a core emotion, and sound genuine. That’s what makes you revisit them. There’s no faking this. 2. BUILD A NICHE: This is true for writers, filmmakers, authors and even for musicians. This is not to say that musicians can’t experiment. But if you hear a song, and place the voice, the melody, or the beat as belonging to a musician, that artist is building a signature. And that helps build fandoms. 3. GIVE THEM SPACE: Most artists will tell you that a good song takes time. You cannot hurry creativity. Give them the time to learn new things - life lessons and new music skills, both. At so many interviews, some artists have shared how they feel they’re a medium and the songs flow through them. Some get into productive flows and can make a song in an hour, some struggle for weeks before they are able to put an idea together. It’s a process. Be kind, be patient, and give them time to build their life’s work. 4. RE-INVENT: So many artists have shared vulnerable moments from their lives when they’ve shed old selves, changed ways of working, walked out of sessions, bands... all in the pursuit of bettering themselves. Change is the only constant. Most artists are brave, they’ll try new things, change names, collaborate across borders and genres, change styles - let them. If you don’t buy into it today, wait to see where they’re going. Let them falter, make mistakes, refine their sound and come back. True talent doesn’t disappear, it gets better. 5. INDUSTRY IS IMPORTANT: Be it an independent artist or a seasoned musician, it takes an army to put a song out. Everyone has a role to play - labels, distributors, streaming platforms, publicists, marketers, venues, live events, journalists, accountants… A full industry enables and markets music. That’s what fuels an artist’s dreams to get them to the studio, build their music and put it out there. The least you can do, is pay for their music. I am always amazed at how honest, open and generous musicians are when it comes to sharing how they do what they do. All they want is for you to lend an ear, listen to their songs and if you don’t like it, there’s always a next release.