In this engaging discussion, Yancey Strickler, co-founder of Kickstarter and creator of Metalabel, shares his vision for a future where artists lead society. He argues that in a few decades, creatives will not just influence culture but also control capital. Yancey highlights the current exclusion of artists from capitalism and the need for a supportive structure to empower them. He discusses the innovative MetaLabel platform and a new project aimed at transforming the creative economy, making it a space where artists thrive and are fairly compensated.
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insights INSIGHT
Modern Creativity
The concepts of art and creativity as we know them today are relatively modern inventions, originating in the mid-20th century.
These concepts emerged from Defense Department-funded research aimed at identifying military officers and addressing societal complacency.
insights INSIGHT
Culture as Future Indicator
Culture and creativity have always been indicators of the future, often with unintended consequences.
We're moving into a post-nation-state world defined by dark forests, internet communities, and crypto.
question_answer ANECDOTE
MetaLabel's Dark Forest Success
MetaLabel's first release, the Dark Forest Anthology, generated $65,000 for its collective.
The platform automatically splits profits, distributing 30% to a treasury, 10% to each author, and covering printing costs.
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Our Band Could Be Your Life is a comprehensive account of the DIY revolution in American rock music during the 1980s. The book profiles 13 influential indie bands, including Black Flag, Sonic Youth, The Replacements, Minutemen, and Husker Du, among others. It explores the personal stories, struggles, and successes of these bands, highlighting their impact on the music industry and their enduring influence. The narrative delves into the DIY ethos, the formation of independent labels like SST Records and Dischord, and the broader cultural and political context of the Reagan era. Azerrad's detailed and engaging writing humanizes the mythology surrounding these bands, providing a personal and insightful look into the lives and music of these pivotal figures in indie rock history.
The age of extremes
a history of the world, 1914-1991
Eric Hobsbawm
The hero with a thousand faces
Joseph Campbell
In this book, Joseph Campbell explores his theory of the 'monomyth', a universal pattern found in the mythological narratives of various cultures. He details the stages of the 'hero's journey', which include departure from the ordinary world, initiation into a supernatural world, and return with a boon. Campbell draws on a wide range of mythological sources and integrates insights from psychology, particularly from Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud, to illustrate the common elements of heroic myths across different cultures.
Creative evolution
Henri Bergson
Yancey Strickler on Metalabel, Digital Scarcity, and the Coming Creative Revolution
Kickstarter co-founder Yancey Strickler unveils his vision of a radical economic future where artists become society's power brokers. Through Metalabel, he's building the infrastructure for collective commerce and creative ownership that could transform how we value and exchange culture.
“In 50 years, artists won't just influence culture—they'll control capital”
Key takeaways:
{00:13:10} - “The concept of art and creativity that we think of today that we take as givens that we're like, “Oh my God, I have to promote my drop again today,” are incredibly modern inventions.” - Yancey
{00:24;51] - “I believe {this project} will produce a world where 50 or 60 years from now, artists and creative people are the most powerful members of society. They will have the greatest influence. They will have the greatest access to wealth. They will be the most powerful people in society, and this is a structure by which that will occur. And that's a project we'll announce next year.” - Yancey
{00:26:20} - “We all want to be able to homestead and have our own spaces that are ours, but we also want to be part of spaces where we can be discovered. And so how can our catalogs exist in a world like that? Artists right now are excluded from capitalism. Let's change that.” - Yancey
{00:28:53} - “People are still just looking in the dead channel, the dying channels…where we've been trained to look for what is new and what matters. And the answer is that that's not where those things are happening now.” - Yancey
{00:38:09} - “Anyone who's 20 years old today, born and raised on the Internet, there's just like a mentality, a metamodern, just flat openness, super well-curated sort of vibe that I just think lends itself quite well to operating very specific, but I think very successful, small to medium-sized creative businesses.” - Yancey
Future Commerce 
