AI Is The Creator Economy’s Make or Break Moment: An Op-Ed By Oscar Höglund

Words and Images By Oscar Höglund

AI is driving a profound transformation, ushering in a “new paradigm” that presents both promising opportunities and potential risks across industries, spanning from healthcare to financial services. The creative fields stand as no exception. A burgeoning creator economy, expected to nearly double in size by 2027, will be supercharged by AI advancements that lower the barrier of entry for emerging content creators while streamlining creative processes for all. Simultaneously, the number of digital video viewers worldwide is predicted to reach 3.5 billion in 2023. AI will boost this further, exponentially freeing up time in people’s daily lives by writing emails, planning holidays, looking after pets, or even driving cars, ultimately resulting in more viewers seeking out and consuming online entertainment.

Yet, the true make-or-break moment lies with companies that serve these content creators. The opportunity does not lie in being first-to-market with AI products, but in launching AI tools that are more dialed in than ever to their users’ needs. Those that rush to release to wash themselves in a buzzword will miss the mark among creators, fail to meet their evolving needs, and lose their place in the creator economy within the “new paradigm”.

For creator-focused services to thrive, a holistic approach that prioritizes understanding user needs is paramount. By starting with an acute comprehension of the fundamental ‘why’ behind AI technologies, companies can effectively tackle real user problems, simplify processes, and empower creators to deliver exceptional content. This approach should be firmly rooted in the company’s values, guiding their actions before determining ‘what’ technological products they create.

The Importance of Understanding ‘Why’

Creator-focused companies are primarily driven by a shared “why”: to empower content creators. The “why” behind individual technologies, however, looks different from company to company based on their role in the creative process.

• Whether it’s alleviating time constraints through AI-powered recommendations, or tackling the subjectivity of creative processes through semantic search or personalized solutions, you need well-established relationships with your community (usually via a product) to understand the true challenges they face and capture the “why” behind your innovation.
• In the “new paradigm”, companies must also employ a visionary product methodology to unearth seemingly inconceivable opportunities to build groundbreaking tools that become essential in streamlining processes and empowering creators to produce exceptional content.
• Throughout all this, remember that some of the most game-changing tools for your community might not be AI-based.

Uncovering and Achieving the Technological ‘How’

To establish “how” to both uncover and achieve this technological “why”, companies must harness strong human feedback, build and utilize AI models, and access high-quality data.

• Creator needs will likely change more rapidly than ever before. To stay competitive, services must possess in-product and out-of-product experiences that provide human feedback loops to guide initial development and then feed AI models to optimize toward changing behavior.
• Those with the expertise to build their own foundation models to power creator tools will succeed. Those who can also complement these by adopting and adapting state-of-the-art external models will thrive. Both require tech talent at scale and a prevailing culture of innovation across all disciplines. If it’s not ingrained already, cultivate it and nurture it.
• For generative models, one of the most important aspects will be the legal complexity. To explore generative possibilities and establish a system that empowers creative communities to thrive, companies must have a respectful, proactive approach to intellectual property that is guided by an unwavering commitment to artistic expression.

The Significance of “Who”

Creator-focused services must understand that they sit at the tension point between artistic expression and technological innovation. Knowing “who” you are as a company is crucial – values such as authenticity, momentum, and integrity will guide innovation in a way that resonates with your creative communities.

• Authenticity. It is perhaps the greatest current challenge for AI: 78% of content creators recently stated they were concerned AI-powered content may lack authenticity. Technology for technology’s sake won’t cut it; companies with an authentic commitment to solve genuine challenges for their community will in turn inspire authentic creativity.
• Momentum. AI will see creator needs changing at a rapid pace. Momentum in constantly analyzing data and human feedback will be essential to continue learning and uncovering emerging creator challenges. It will be the lifeblood of creator-focused companies.
• Integrity. The world has its eyes on AI – perhaps excessively so: a superficial AI win now is not worth the damage to the trust and credibility you have built with your community. Build responsibly, ethically, and with integrity to empower creativity.

Companies that establish the above building blocks before moving into “what” products they should build will succeed in delivering game-changing value and continue to thrive within the creator economy. Ultimately, this foundation is what will separate generic products from tools that create “magic”; ones that creators turn to time and again because of their positive impact on their creative process.

The combination of innovation and artistic expression is what will create the real magic in the creator economy – elevating creativity through meaningful technological solutions.

Who Is Oscar Höglund?

Oscar Höglund is co-founder and CEO of Epidemic Sound, a MusicTech company on a mission to soundtrack the world. Over his 20-year career, Oscar has founded several start-ups and is known for his bold innovations and proven business results (such as Epidemic Sound becoming Sweden’s latest billion-dollar company). 

Since its inception in 2009, Oscar has led Epidemic Sound’s journey to become the market leader of restriction-free music for storytellers and is responsible for the company’s global expansion strategy. Epidemic Sound has garnered critical acclaim for its democratization of music and innovative digital rights model that helps creators use music freely while supporting musicians financially and creatively. Oscar founded Epidemic Sound from a stint at one of Sweden’s leading TV production companies, Zodiak Television.

What Is Soundmatch?

Soundmatch is an AI-powered music discovery tool that saves time and delivers vastly better results for content creators. The tool uses AI to analyze frames within a video, then leverages data from over two billion daily views of YouTube videos with Epidemic Sound music to recommend tracks perfectly suited to each visual scene. 

Soundmatch joins Epidemic Sound’s existing suite of AI-powered tools, which includes its ‘Music Recommender’ (2020), the ‘More of what you like’feature (2020) and the audio-based search tool ‘Epidemic Audio Reference’ (EAR)’ (2022).”