The Life of a Content Creator

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I actually really dislike the phrase, "content creator." It sounds like a bleached version of things creative people produce, made more easily digestible for the masses. But! That is the world and future we now live in, where everything is watered down in content, and also in language.

Would you call me a successful content creator? It depends on how you look at it. One of my albums under Eyeshadow 2600 FM was a bestselling dark synth album on Bandcamp for a short period of time upon its release. Before I abandoned the NFT-arena (a long story, but I will say that everything I made here was drawn by hand, not by bots, and I did this alone), I got featured by the official Twitter account (pre-Musk).

Today, I regularly get five to one thousand views on shorts I post on Tik Tok and Youtube.

But am I famous? Absolutely not. Is fame something that is required to call yourself successful?

I don't think so.

But I do feel like, my own measure of success, and whether I am, will only come when I can financially stabilize and support myself only from things that I, myself, create. And, no, we are not yet there. Being a "content creator" is a long, hard road, especially if you weren't born into a million dollars.

Lately, I haven't been posting as much here (lately, as in the past week). It's not really burn-out or anything, I've just been working on yet another project.

Over the past decade, Tik Tok, Youtube, and Instagram have all become a place for "shorts," or short videos up to or under a minute (although, Tik Tok now encourages longer videos). And, for whatever reason, if you make at least slightly interesting content, and find a way to smash it into a short, people will watch it.

Thousands of people.

In an effort to be always transparent, and talk about the things I'm doing, I decided to start making gaming shorts, with the robotic voice "Jessie" as my narrator for facts and stories that go on top of that footage.

@cmdr_nova Fun facts for you on this Thursday evening! The more you know! #facts #gaming #gtaonline #funfacts ♬ Conspiracy - Kieran Rogers

Believe it or not, this stuff is actually bringing eyes to my channels (I know it sounds like I just discovered shorts, but believe me, I have been aware, and am an avid Tik Tok user). And that's what intrigues me. Innocent, or even funny, little gaming videos, are bringing thousands of people to what I do. Obviously, the idea now is to keep on doing this, indefinitely. If this is going to bring people to my stuff, maybe to my music, maybe my website, and my writing, then it'd be foolish not to.

Of course, I can't discount the fact that over the years I've received and still do receive a lot of support for what I do through channels on Mastodon. But, as bills mount, and debt continues, I've got to become more ambitious than I used to be.

Which means I'm also going to be returning to Twitch.

Years ago, sometime in the 2017 and 2018 era, I used to stream Dark Souls 1 and 2 to a tiny audience, and it was fun for a time. But as issues arose, and even after attaining the affiliate tag, I kind of dropped off. Then my life greatly changed. And now, years later, I find myself in a spot where I need to do more. It's not a matter of want, it's that I need to explore every avenue I can.

And I really don't think that's far off from the reasons why anybody else does any of this. We're all being crushed under the weight of a financial prison.