Shouldn’t Taylor Swift’s earliest fans—who helped her first gain traction—share in her success? The startup Pando provides income pooling among communities.

A recurring theme as technology has changed celebrity is that content output goes up and production value goes down. The production value of a Kardashian social media post is orders of magnitude lower than the production value of an episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show.

The next generation of celebrities will make money through a combination of subscription and micropayments. Fans will pay recurring revenue to support and gain access to their favorite celebrities, but will pay additional money for à la carte items.

The Kardashians took Oprah’s playbook and applied it to the Internet.

But the more interesting development in the business of celebrity is the shift away from advertising.

For millions of people today, watching and conversing with their favorite lifestyle streamer is much more engaging than passively watching Netflix.

But after listening to Brud CEO Tyler McFedries on Reid Hoffman’s Masters of Scale podcast, I’m coming around to the concept.

Despite their social media prowess, the Kardashians still needed a TV show to jumpstart their fame. Charli D’Amelio only needed a smartphone and the TikTok app.

In OnlyFans and the Evolution of the Influencer, I wrote that I’m skeptical of digital celebrities like those created by the company Brud. Computer-created influencers seem at odds with the trend toward more authentic, relatable influencers.