If we’ve learned anything over the past two and a half years, it’s that the status quo will not sustain us. It has repeatedly proven its ineptitude, and wealth and power disparities have remained even as our marketplaces and social forums have evolved.
Content creation is no exception. Success as a creator in a digital world is contingent upon cooperating with the algorithm to capture the largest audience and the most clicks. Unsurprisingly, there’s one resource the algorithm prizes above all else: money.
Though social media platforms were, in some part, sold to us as a way to amplify everyone’s voices, success on these platforms proves that money still buys the biggest megaphone. Thus social media becomes a mere extension of the same imbalances with which we’ve always struggled, albeit in newer, shinier clothes–clothes funded by an Instagram ad, no doubt.
It’s easy, in this model, to become disillusioned. Where is the joy in creating, making art, and evoking awe if multi-billion dollar corporations profit more from your audience than you do? Cryptocurrency is the solution.
According to an article from Rolling Stone titled, How Content Creators and Influencers Can Leverage Crypto, when creators utilize cryptocurrency, it “creat[es] a paradigm shift in how money flows through the entertainment industry’s ecosystem.” This shift benefits the creator and works most effectively to remove the middleman–like a social media network, agency, or label– who traditionally disseminates the content.
Not only does crypto help connect creators more closely with their audience in a monetary exchange sense, but it also lessens the social divide. This social connection is especially prevalent with crypto like Apollo, which prioritizes community building.
Building a solid community works in tandem with building a bustling creator economy. You cannot have one without the other. When we put the power, and by extension, the capital, in the hands of the people, art that moves them will succeed.
Rather than wrestling with an algorithm to get content on as many screens as possible, joining Apollo DAO–a tight-knit and supportive group of authentically hopeful people–connects creators with a community who will commit their votes and resources to creative success.
Crypto is good for creators because it puts the power back in their hands. A common refrain used to justify creators’ difficulty is that “the market is so over-saturated” and “everyone’s trying to succeed, but only a select few can.” But if we stop letting a select number of wealthy people and corporations decide who gets to succeed, the whole argument becomes moot. Is the market over-saturated, or does the status quo need us to believe this so it can remain?
It’s a question we can’t answer in one article, but one worth asking, nonetheless. All we can guarantee is that if something isn’t working, the only way to move forward is to try something else. In this case, something else is crypto, and Apollo DAO is a perfect place to start.
