Domination of superstars

gave her.

Good for her. I guess. Hopefully her father doesn’t apply for a conservatorship to manage her new-found wealth. This puts her in elite OnlyFans company. It is estimated that almost all of the content providers earn close to nothing while a small elite capture most of the eyeballs and dollars that follow from them.

It isn’t clear that Bhad Bhabie was what Rosen had in mind when he wrote about the economic domination of superstars, but that does appear to be what we are seeing.

Other subscription services, like Patreon, Spotify and Substack, report that as much as 90 per cent of all revenue goes to the top few per cent of creatives.

None of this causes me much joy as my 8-year-old returns to school. During the past three months of couch-surfing he has consumed a decade’s worth of

YouTube and decided that if Mr Beast and Jelly (don’t ask, don’t Google) can make a living videoing themselves playing computer games, why shouldn’t he?

Trying to explain the concentration of revenue to a few top performers while everyone else waits tables when off-camera is a difficult concept to get across to someone whose primary interest is how many marshmallows a chap can hold in their mouth without choking (17, according to non-replicable empirical research).

When I was younger, I fancied myself as a novelist. It seemed a suitable career for someone whose past was as spotty as a dalmatian, and I still have three manuscripts sitting, unloved, unread and, quite possibly, unreadable on my shelf.

My problem, like those of so many who toil for shillings in the hyper-competitive market of online content, is that my creative efforts are inadequate to reach the levels of Mike Hosking, much less J K Rowling.

For me, writing is an endeavour pursued for its own sake, while the rent is covered by the mundane gruel of billable hours and, where approved, court-sanctioned liquidation fees.

I believe in the market and, as a consequence, I must respect its verdict.

Bhad Bhabie’s contribution is more valuable than anything I have ever produced. Some readers may agree. Certainly more people have been willing to pay for her content that have ever paid for mine.

Damien Grant is a business owner based in Auckland. He writes from a libertarian perspective and is a member of the Taxpayers’ Union but not of any political party.