Means of Creation

Spotify is doubling down on investing in creators. Within the past week alone, the music giant both launched its own live audio app, Greenroom, to directly compete with Clubhouse and acquired an audio news feed app, Podz, to improve creator discovery. But while these moves might seem sudden, Spotify’s Chief R&D Officer Gustav Söderström has been thinking about Spotify’s unique role in the creator economy for a while. Gustav has been with the company since it was a 30-person team in Stockholm, and has a valuable bird’s eye view of the company’s product vision and strategy as a leader of teams across Product, Design, Data, Technology and Engineering. He also reports directly to Daniel Ek, Spotify’s CEO and co-founder.In this conversation, we talk to Gustav about what he’s keeping a pulse on these days; NFTS? Interactive audio? Bundles? We also talk about: - How he sees Spotify fitting into the creator economy through their Open Access Platform- Why the Spotify doesn’t believe in taking an “App Store cut” from creators - The company’s ethos around building “voluntary” features - Why he’s excited about the business model of NFTs - The demand for live audio and why it’s bigger than people thought We hope you enjoy this conversation with Gustav as much as we did! Brought to you by Means of Creation, an Every newsletterTheme composed by Keizo Fish

Alex Kantrowitz is a journalist who has spent years studying the inner workings of tech companies—how and why they make strategic decisions. He’s also a solo creator with a newsletter and podcast (Big Technology), and has written a book, Always Day One, in which he studies the internal decision-making frameworks within big tech companies. In this conversation, we talk to Alex about: - Why the creator economy went mainstream, and how Big Tech’s attitude toward it shifted - Why he is bullish on Twitter Spaces and why he thinks live audio will not really replace podcasting - His work as a solo creator, and how having direct control of his audience compares to his time working for larger media companies - The pros and cons of monetizing through advertising versus subscriptions, and - His personal strategies to avoid burning out Brought to you by Means of Creation, an Every newsletter https://every.to/means-of-creation Music by Keizo Fish

Li and Nathan are joined by Kat Tenbarge, senior reporter at Insider. Digging into Kat's work as an influencer watchdog—including her recent expose on sexual assault allegations against David Dobrik's Vlog Squad—they discuss the importance of holding influencers accountable, what people don't always understand about the elaborate fact-checking and editing processes, and how the internet might move to a healthier content ecosystem. If you liked this, you'll like our newsletter! We publish an original essay on the creator economy every week at https://every.to/means-of-creation Theme music by Keizo Fish

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Li and Nathan spoke to Turner Novak, a former GP at Gelt VC and an omnipresent memelord on Twitter and TikTok. He is currently just vibing while he works on launching something new. He’s deeply insightful about the creator economy, and this conversation revolved around the recent backlash over Substack Pro and it’s status as a platform or a publisher, Twitter adding monetisation features for Spaces, what makes Clubhouse engaging, and more!  Brought to you by Means of Creation, an Every newsletter.

Brought to you by Means of Creation, an Every newsletter.

Brought to you by Means of Creation, an Every newsletter.

This week we welcome Allen Lau, the co-founder and CEO of Wattpad—a self-publishing platform and entertainment company with 90 million users and 5 million writers. It was recently acquired by South Korean tech conglomerate Naver for $600 million. Allen is also the co-founder of Two Small Fish Ventures, a fund that invests in Toronto and Waterloo-based early-stage internet companies with strong network effects. Prior to Wattpad, Allen co-founded FeedM8, a mobile advertising company that was later acquired. He also co-founded Tira Wireless, where he helped leading brands optimize content for mobile delivery.

Katie Ameri and Elijah Daniel are co-founders of Rocketship House, a villa in the Hollywood Hills that serves as their platform for content and venture creation. You might know Katia from her starring role in Zoom Bachelorette, or from her work as the founder of Mirra, a skincare newsletter with over 100k subscribers. Elijah is known for his viral satirical stunts, such as becoming the mayor of Hell, Michigan, and outlawing straight people, only to be impeached later that day. In a feature profile last a few months ago, Taylor Lorenz of the New York Times wrote, “his career could be seen as a blueprint for how to succeed in today’s digital media landscape, if you’re willing to make a few people mad in the process.”We spoke to Katia and Elijah about:- What they're trying to build with Rocketship House- The process behind creating a creator house, and why the business model changes each time- Why their partnership works, and their differing views of tech- Using underleveraged distribution channels such as OnlyFans and Twitch in order to empower and protect creators- Widespread disconnects between creators and platforms- Their project pipeline, and how it engenders collaboration and allows creators to push the envelopedBrought to you by Every's Means of Creation newsletter

Joshua Cohen is the cofounder of Tubefilter, the go-to source for creator economy news and insight. He also co-founded the Streamy Awards — an annual event considered to be the Grammys for online video creators.Founded in 2009, Tubefilter and the Streamy Awards have been pivotal for the legitimization of the creator economy. The Streamy Awards have been recognizing creators and online business trends long before it was considered a serious industry and it had nearly 7 million views in 2019. Currently, Tubefilter also runs two popular series profiling YouTube and TikTok millionaires, and releases Tubefilter Charts. Joshua also co-hosts Planet Upload, a podcast dissecting the creator economy. In this interview, we are going to talk to Joshua about:How content creation became a legitimate businessCreator wellness and the commonalities shared by successful content creatorsHow content creators and their business models have changed over the yearsHow YouTube has remained dominant as a social media platformThe changes in platforms’ creator strategies over the years And more!