The internet has always held a lot of promise for creators. It hasn’t always delivered.

In a creator’s utopia, they would have unmediated access to their audience — no red tape, no gatekeepers, devoted audiences, and the ability to make a sustainable living from their art. Instead, things got complicated and the creator economy made an enormous promise that it’s only fulfilled in certain cases.

Some creators hit the jackpot — a combination of timing, luck, talent, and being on the right pl...