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Making an income as a content creator has never been more attainable, with online earning opportunities spanning from brand partnerships, to product sales, to affiliate marketing.
A new report from Swedish royalty-free music provider Epidemic Sound found that 76.5% of creators had seen a significant increase in their earnings over the past year — and most of them cited a growing range of monetization options as a reason.
The best platform to earn was TikTok, creators said, closely followed by YouTube.
The study surveyed 1,500 US-based content creators who are currently monetizing their work, with a sample drawn from a range of industries and niches, including but not limited to video creators, podcasters, bloggers, and social-media influencers. The survey was conducted in March 2023.
“Hopefully we’ll be able to add a pretty wide spectrum of data,” said Oscar Höglund, cofounder and CEO of Epidemic Sound. “One of the things which is lacking within this space is a clear definition of scope, market, guardrails, size, growth, because it’s so young and there’s so many different parts.”
Here are four takeaways from the report.
That’s compared to 23% who said their income had gone down or stayed the same.
Of those who’d seen their income increase, the majority said the change had to do with:
“The creator economy is in good shape, it’s nascent,” Höglund said. “I think that last year, fueled by a post-pandemic mode, a lot of content creators saw their revenues increase, and most are anticipating that that will continue into next year, which I find interesting, seeing as many other disciplines are seeing a slowdown.”
While income for creators has largely gone up, almost all of them said they planned to cut down on expenses, particularly those for talent, location rentals, and props and costumes.
The survey found that creators spent an average of $2,500 annually on production-related expenses.
The difficult economic climate plays a role, but Höglund also takes this as a sign that the industry is professionalizing.
“This tells me that previously content creators were more dependent on external props to grant their content the production value that they thought would determine success. Paying for talent or paying for a sexy location or cool props to make things look glamorous,” he said. “But I think we’re past that point in terms of maturity and people are understanding it’s much more about the craft: can I tell a compelling story? Is my editing game on par?”
When asked which platforms are the best to generate income, 30% of creators mentioned TikTok, while about 26% said YouTube. Instagram lagged behind with only 7%.
YouTube turned out to be the best for high earners (those who make more than $200,000 annually from content), while TikTok was the favored platform at all other income levels.
This is in line with findings from other recent studies. A May report from influencer-marketing firm The Influencer Marketing agency found that 94% of surveyed creators used AI; in another report from video-and-image app developer Lightricks, 62% of creators said they used it.
Creators previously told Insider they had been successfully experimenting with artificial intelligence, particularly ChatGPT, and making it a key tool in their workflow.
The main functions creators are leveraging AI for are:
Some skepticism remains, however: 78% of creators are concerned that content generated with AI may lack authenticity or originality, and 74% think AI will increase competition.
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