Last week Nathan Apodaca got on a skateboard, cranked up Fleetwood Mac, and cruised the streets sipping cranberry juice. Of course, Nathan went viral, because us humans love beautiful moments. This past week, fans of the viral hit led a $10,000+ support fund to put some money in his pocket to help him support his family, and of course, for more cranberry juice.
After watching the internet come together to do something amazing for Nathan, I started to think more about Nathan as a representation of all creators and what their return on their creativity looks like. Though Nathan’s moment is a wonderful testament to the future of the Creator Economy, it is sadly not the norm for most hardworking creators. Creators are forced to spread themselves thin, to dilute their creativity with brand friendliness, to play the game.
Sure sometimes this works, but many times audiences become skeptical that the creator’s authenticity has dwindled, or their content is being too heavily skewed by the sponsorship. But of course we know that creators deserve better. At Clash, we believe that creators should not have to choose between the art that gained them an audience, and sponsorships that will help them earn a living wage. More skateboards. More cranberry juice. More Fleetwood Mac.
While the first wave of social media was all about curated content and presenting your best life, we’ve seen a major shift in how creators connect with their audience. Whether it’s a celebrity or internet creator, audiences are looking for deeper connections with creators, more authenticity. Gone are the days of washboard abs and perfectly made up faces clogging your feed.
This connection and conversation is what we’re building Clash around. We want the core of our platform to be creators and users finding meaningful connections and enjoy building community around shared interests. We don’t want our creators living each day wondering whether or not an algorithm is going to work in their favor so that they can pay their bills. While there are companies like OnlyFans and Patreon that are already giving users an opportunity to subscribe to premium content from their favorite creators, we want to take this to the next level by integrating an even easier monetization model that rewards creativity, and dismisses the concept of a paywall.
It turns out that our skateboarding friend Nathan received thousands of dollars in donations from viewers who found a moment of joy in his video, and the financial support is directly impacting him and his family. Clash will revolutionize the way creators monetize, so that stories like Nathan’s become the norm. So while we get back to developing our suite of monetization tools, we’ll be listening to Dreams too and working toward our vision of creator freedom with Stevie Nicks’ words in mind… ‘Now here you go again you say you want your freedom.’
Announcing: Monetization Early Access
This week, Clash is opening up its Creator Monetization Waitlist, where invited creators will receive early access to test the full range of Clash’s monetization tools and suite. Creators of all sizes and backgrounds are invited to sign up here.
See you on Clash
Brendon and the Clash Team
