The Exposure Trap: How the Creative Industry Profits While Creators Go Broke

Prestige is an illusion. Ever wonder why so many creators are going broke? Musicians, actors, indie filmmakers, authors—the list goes on. It’s likely because celebrity has become currency in the form of exposure, and everyone wants it. Prestige comes from being recognized as elite, distinguished, or influential, yet even the most prestigious people are questioning their life decisions—and not for the reasons you might think.

The exposure trap convinces creators that the more exposure they have, the richer they’ll become. Let’s face it, we’re all chasing some kind of lifestyle that allows us to have freedom while still making an honest living. Tech companies promise that: Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, TikTok—it’s “post on our platform, gain exposure, and we’ll monetize your content. Let’s make money together.”

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The truth is, they’re making the money while you provide the content, and they get to decide how to use that content to benefit their platform. Your RPM can fluctuate, and there’s nothing you can do about it. Your videos can be shadow-banned—nothing you can do about that either. They can withhold your funds for weeks, even months, and again, there’s nothing you can do about it. So if we know it’s a trap, why do we still want in?

We’re all tired of capitalism and how much it’s taken from us: our youth, vitality, and comfort. Even when you’re working hard, you’re often spending more time at work than at home enjoying the fruits of your labor. Exposure has become a drug because it allows us to justify working hard as long as there’s a goal in sight—and that goal is freedom.

Capitalists have taken our deepest desire, rebranded it, and sold it back to us in the form of creative labor. TikTok still demands that you produce high-quality content six to ten times a day. YouTube now prioritizes high-quality production that requires a nice setup, good lighting, hair, makeup, and sound. It’s the classic carrot on a stick, but they’re calling it freedom instead of what it really is: an exploitative system designed to keep their pockets full.

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FOMO has creatives in a chokehold. Couple that with the high cost of living, and suddenly everyone’s pulling out their phones, hitting record, and praying for that big payout to cover next month’s bills—only to do it all over again. Exposure used to be polished and prestigious; now, it’s a woman shouting in her car or a girl in her living room claiming all the rich people are fleeing to Saturn. There are no gatekeepers on the internet anymore.

Which leads to my next point: gatekeepers—PR firms, platforms like Backstage, and middlemen in general. Independent creatives who want to work behind the camera have the hardest time because legacy gatekeepers have created an illusion of prestige that looks accessible and free, convincing people they can reach it through talent and merit alone. The truth isn’t that pretty.

Brands, actors, and musicians all seek out people to pay in hopes of reaching “maximum exposure.” A brand hires a publicist for a Vogue write-up, an actor hires an agent for an indie film gig, a musician hires a manager for performance bookings. All these middlemen are unnecessary, yet the capitalist exposure trap convinces creators and business owners they’re essential. The reality is, you don’t need the middleman—you can go straight to the source. Rich people have the source’s name and number in their Rolodex. Poor people are sold the middleman; rich people are given direct contact with the CEO and Editor-in-Chief.

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The middleman doesn’t have access, they don’t have talent, and all they have is your money. What does that mean? It means the source is demonized for asking to be compensated for providing a service you’re already paying a middleman to access. It’s all an illusion. You want to be featured in Vogue? Contact their sales team, pay for a spot once, and build a relationship with them. That’s how you get access—and you’ll likely never have to pay again.

That’s how we’ve done it for years. One hand scratches the other; that’s the truth behind the industry and the reason you see the same five actors and actresses in the same movies—they understand this concept. Pay to play doesn’t mean you get in just because you have the funds. Pay to play means you understand the concept of business.

“Hey, it’s nothing personal, just business.”

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Intermediaries profit while creators stay unpaid, trapped in a validation loop that keeps everyone stuck until one of the legacy gatekeepers decides to pluck someone out. For centuries, men dominated the media landscape, so the idea of charging beautiful women to appear in their films was never considered—because if they paid, how would the men benefit? They already had money; what they wanted was control. Telling an aspiring actress that all she had to do was have an affair or sleep with him was enough to get her name in a contract and her face on the screen. From the outside, her stardom looked organic, but the reality was anything but. We’ve moved away from that with more women entering the creative space as gatekeepers, but the brainwashing runs deep. Creatives still think it’s a scam when an indie producer says, “Please pay for a background check,” because legally, they’re not required to cover it.

The psychology of free work extends far beyond unpaid opportunities and the social validation loop. Social media owns creatives in a way that Harvey Weinstein never could when it came to actors. Creatives are spending thousands on equipment, learning editing tools, uploading to platform after platform, hiring publicists, agents, photographers, videographers, and more—all for “the payout.”

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The unpaid labor isn’t considered because we’ve been conditioned to believe these things are necessary to reach a goal—a goal that’s promised but controlled. Meanwhile, the only thing that can truly catapult stardom is the one thing legacy gatekeepers have demonized: paid media placements. Whether you’re paying for a spot or not, press makes you an authority in your niche—not social media.

Middlemen can’t guarantee you press, but you’re expected to guarantee their invoices get paid each month. It’s a system designed to keep middlemen rich, creatives poor, and the source out of reach, all to maintain the illusion of prestige. But that illusion is dying. Many bloggers, indie publications, and independent artists are speaking up. We’re shedding light on these deceptive practices and encouraging people to come to us directly—and the results speak for themselves. Relationships increase value, and value is the new luxury.

by Riley Cook and Lisa K. Stephenson