(2022-10-17) Evolution Of The Solopreneur

Evolution of the solopreneur. The “creator economy” is a tech buzzword used to describe the ecosystem of tools that creators use to earn money and build audiences online.

you’ll hear a growing list of emotional and practical anxieties

But lately the beginnings of a new pattern has emerged. Several creators, who were once solo individual practitioners, have begun rethinking their online stack to transition what were once solo projects into full self-governing collectives. (CoOperative)

Below are examples of several groups that have made this transition

Water & Music

Water & Music began as a solo project. Initially a newsletter by music industry writer Cherie Hu

Using Patreon, Water & Music made their first shift from being a freelance solopreneur project towards becoming an independent, community-supported project.

With subscription support from online patrons, Water & Music began to grow to the point of supporting other part-time and full-time staff. The solo newsletter became a collaborative and self-sustaining business

In 2022 Water & Music abandoned their audience-building efforts on Patreon’s platform and began recognizing membership through the ownership of a W&M membership NFT, as well as a more traditional option via their website

it became a larger collective effort with dozens of contributors. This effort of collective writing was supported by the introduction of a native community token, $STREAM, used to recognize the contributions of each member.

At launch, the $STREAM token was also airdropped to retroactively reward the community for several forms of loyalty, contributions, or patronage. Recipients included guest article writers, Patreon supporters, and engaged Discord users.

Songcamp

Matthew Chaim has been releasing music as a solo artist since 2016

In the Spring of 2021, Matthew created an experimental songwriting camp called Songcamp. This initial experiment, titled “The Unlock,” collectively funded, created and distributed art.

over $30,000 going directly to artists and project contributors. Through integrating Web3 infrastructure using Zora, Mirror, and Catalog, funds were able to be distributed to participants automatically and seamlessly, without any value-extractive intermediaries.

In June 2022, the Songcamp collective launched a project called CHAOS, a band of 77 artists creating and releasing music as a collective identity.

Within 24 hours of releasing the songs, the collective band had earned over $500,000 in direct sales, all automatically split among members.

Song A DAO

Jonathan Mann has been writing one song a day as a solo artist since January 1st, 2009.

In 2022, Jonathan Mann formed an organization called Song A DAO

making song collectors into legal co-owners of the project.

Post-individualist creativity