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# How many ‘creators’ are there and how do they make money? [SignalFire study]
- URL: https://www.hypebot.com/how-many-creators-are-there-and-how-do-they-make-money-signalfire-study/
- Published: 2021-06-14T15:28:25.000Z
- Updated: 2021-06-14T15:28:26.000Z
- Description: 2 million people make a living as content creators, according to a new study by venture capital firm SignalFire. Not all musicians think of themselves as content creators. But –. Continue reading [https://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2021/06/how-many-creators-are-there-and-how-do-they-make-money-signalfi
- Author: Bruce Houghton
- Tags: Uncategorized, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-01-21 09:48

2 million people make a living as content creators, according to a new study by venture capital firm SignalFire.

Not all musicians think of themselves as content creators. But – just like everyone who posts regularly on social media in hopes of eventually making money – they certainly are – and there is a lot of competition.

In a new sweeping look at the content creator ecosystem, SignalFire identified 2 million full-time and 46.7 part-time creators.

![](https://signalfire.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/SignalFire-How-Many-Creators-Are-There.png)

Here is [SignalFire](https://signalfire.com/blog/creator-economy/?ref=hypebot.com)‘s bottom’s up TAM (total addressable market) analysis for the 50 million.

#### **Professional Individual Creators (\~2M+) – Making content full-time**

- YouTube: Of the 31M channels on YouTube, \~1M creators have over 10K subscribers ([source](https://www.tubics.com/blog/number-of-youtube-channels/?ref=hypebot.com))
- Instagram: Of the 1bn accounts on Instagram, \~500K have over 100k followers and are considered active influencers ([source](https://mention.com/en/reports/instagram/followers/?ref=hypebot.com))
- Twitch: Of the 3M streamers on Twitch, \~300K have either Partner or Affiliate status ([source](https://blog.twitch.tv/en/2018/04/24/one-year-and-220-000-affiliates-later-4c49042127c/?ref=hypebot.com))
- Others: including musicians, podcasters, writers, illustrators, etc total \~200K

#### Amateur Individual Creators (\~46.7M) – Monetizing content creation part-time

- YouTube: Of the 31M channels on YouTube, \~12M have between 100-10K subscribers ([source](https://www.tubics.com/blog/number-of-youtube-channels/?ref=hypebot.com))
- Instagram: Of the 1bn accounts on Instagram, \~30M have between 50-100K followers ([source](https://mention.com/en/reports/instagram/followers/?ref=hypebot.com#2))
- Twitch: Of the 3M streamers on Twitch, \~2.7M are non Partner or Affiliates
- Others: including musicians, podcasters, writers, illustrators, maybe a total of \~2M<

![Stacks of gold coins and paper currency representing financial growth and monetization in the music industry.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/3a/95/3a957c06-c825-4057-9939-0a274cc16d23/content/images/spcdn-shortpixel-ai/spio/ret_img-q_cdnize/www-hypebot-com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/money-1673582_1280.png)

## How Do Creators Earn Money?

According to [SignalFire ](https://signalfire.com/blog/creator-economy/?ref=hypebot.com)creators on platforms like YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitch, TikTok, Substack, Patreon, and OnlyFans primarily earn money by:

- Advertising revenue shares
- Sponsored content
- Product placement
- Tipping
- Paid subscriptions
- Digital content sales
- Merchandise
- Shout-outs
- Live and virtual events
- VIP meetups
- Fan clubs

**We’ll have more highlights of this [SignalFire study](https://signalfire.com/blog/creator-economy/?ref=hypebot.com) later this week.**

**Bruce Houghton* is Founder and Editor of [Hypebot](https://www.hypebot.com/) and [MusicThinkTank](http://www.musicthinktank.com/?ref=hypebot.com) and serves as a Senior Advisor to [Bandsintown](https://www.bandsintown.com/?ref=hypebot.com) which acquired both publications in 2019\. He is also the Founder and President of the[ Skyline Artists Agency](https://skylineonline.com/?ref=hypebot.com) and a professor at the [Berklee College Of Music](https://online.berklee.edu/courses/touring-101?ref=hypebot.com) online.*