Doom now and forever?

Sending posts into the void.

Refreshing notifications for validation.

Competing most intensely with the people most like us.

These are the hallmarks of creative life today. Cycles we all know too well.

We’ve come to associate these feelings with the creative process. 

But what if they’re not creativity at all? 

What if they’re just side effects of the systems we’re trapped inside?

Followers, likes, subscribers, view counts. This has become our default language for self-assessment and self-worth.

It wasn’t always like this.

Twenty years ago artists talked about critics, radio, magazines, fans, sales. Entirely different creative conditions. Entirely different emotional rhythms.

Not saying one is better. Just that these things change.

The struggles so many of us face aren’t failures of talent or ambition. They’re the byproduct of systems that reshaped the creative act into something comparative and relentlessly performative.

But here’s the truth: these systems aren’t natural law.

They’re temporary. Circumstantial. The result of someone else's assumptions and imagination.

Now they’ve run their course. A lot of the old shit doesn’t work anymore. A lot of recent shit too, actually.

We know what isn’t and what won’t be.

Now the question is what could be? 

How can we find our way out?

Not back, but forward. Toward spaces that honor our sovereignty, gather us around shared purpose, and actually value creative work.

Is that even possible?

Or must our doom be eternal?

Metalabel Spring/Summer 2025. Coming April 30.

New Creative Era

This week, we dig into what valuing creative work looks like in real-life case studies of creative projects on the New Creative Era podcast. Tune in: Apple, Spotify, and on the web.