Key takeaways:
Fans are becoming active participants and value creators, not just consumers.
Neo-franchises leverage fan contributions to expand reach and foster deeper engagement.
Blockchain and generative AI lower barriers to collaboration and value sharing for fans.
FaaS provides a pathway for fans to earn, from casual involvement to solopreneur ventures.
Embracing fan contributions adds value to franchises, fostering a thriving, community-driven ecosystem.
Humans crave connection. We want to be adjacent to people we identify with. This dynamic is the basic structure of society, and it explains how some entertainment franchises grow passionate followings over decades. While this is happening, our world is becoming increasingly digitized. And last year's advancements in AI set us up for meaningful changes and displacements to the very concept of "work" over the next decade. Meanwhile, people increasingly want to work on things that matter.
This creates a perfect storm of change. An environment for entertainment franchises to pull ahead of competitors if their dare to break from the confines of traditional business models and thinking.
Fandom as a Service explains a structure where entertainment franchises allow fans all the way in to the core of the IP itself; to expand on it through professional fandom, and even monetize this activity.
Opportunities for all
The future of entertainment isn’t just about creating content—it’s about creating opportunities. As technology reshapes the creative landscape, fans are stepping up, not just as consumers, but as active participants and value creators. This is a shift we've seen for more than a decade as user generated content online flourishes, the lines between consuming and creating blurs and the creator economy grows.
In a sea of content battling for attention, standing out requires more than just quality—it requires cultivating passionate fan communities that actively contribute and amplify the franchise's reach. The Fandom as a Service thesis illustrates how franchises can go further by enabling fans to monetize their fandom while contributing to the overall success and growth of the franchise.
Franchises that successfully harness fan energy and structure it to benefit both the franchise and the fans will stand out in a crowded content landscape, gaining a significant competitive advantage.
The entertainment industry is in a state of disarray. Having barely adjusted to the late-stage impact of the internet as a disruptive force in content distribution, it now faces the challenge of generative AI disrupting the creative process itself. All of this unfolds amidst a broader digitization of consumer habits and time spent.
One emerging possibility lies in "Fandom as a Service" (FaaS), where fans become integral participants in the value creation process of entertainment franchises. This is not just about deeper engagement but about enabling fans to monetize their passion—turning them from passive consumers into active creators and stakeholders. According to a recent YouTube fandom report, 8% of Gen Z already considers themselves professional fans, finding ways to monetize their fandom. Right now, one example of this is a fan creating content for other fans, growing an audience on the back of this content, and monetizing it (e.g., via ads on YouTube).
Fully formed, the Fandom as a Service thesis means we see entertainment brands that offer up tooling, distribution, and monetization strategies that fans can take advantage of to turn into professional fans. On the backhand, this activity fuels the overall franchise.
Harnessing Fan Energy for Growth
To understand this shift, it's useful to consider how different eras of entertainment relate to technology. I call it the “Gravitational Forces of Entertainment Franchises.” Essentially, every entertainment property—whether a studio, franchise, or brand—is shaped by the era it originates from, which in turn dictates its approach to new technologies and consumer behaviors. It's the innovator's dilemma of entertainment. Legacy franchises, organized in a top-down manner and optimized for maximum value capture, struggle to adapt to an era that demands community-driven, participatory experiences.
Neo-franchises, by contrast, see fans not merely as an audience but as value multipliers. They recognize that by enabling fans to create, remix, and expand upon original content, they expand the reach and value of the franchise itself. This is bigger pie thinking—sharing a portion of value capture with fans, who in turn become both marketing vessels and collaborative storytellers.
Traditional franchised IP already sees unsolicited fan-generated content, such as fan fiction and UGC in Roblox. This content captures attention and strengthens the IP's network effects, yet the effort is neither rewarded nor recognized by the original IP holder.
New, neo-franchises built within the gravitational sphere of generative AI tooling and blockchain technology can harness this fan energy in more efficient ways.
Blockchain technology further supports this vision by enabling transparent content remixing and value sharing. Putting intellectual property on-chain allows for global, permissionless collaboration while automating value splits, letting fans capture some of the value they create. Generative AI enhances this trend by lowering barriers to creative expression, enabling more people to contribute—not just for the joy of creating, but also for potential profit.
The Fandom as a Service thesis sees franchises take this a step further, allowing these professional fans to monetise their derivative content. We can imagine this happening onchain, with revenue split between fan and franchise.
The Future of Work and Play
There is also a broader socio-economic component to consider. AI is expected to create significant labor efficiencies, potentially leading to widespread job displacement. This shift presents both challenges and opportunities: people will need new ways to spend their time and earn income.
This creates a tailwind for the FaaS approach—enabling entertainment brands to create a structured pathway that allows fans to earn as they engage. Fans can move through a value ladder, starting from casual involvement and potentially advancing to full-fledged monetization. For some, this might mean extra pocket money, while for others, it could develop into a solopreneur venture, even allowing them to become key contributors to the franchise. These contributions are value additive for the franchise itself, expanding its reach, strengthening community bonds, and fostering a deeper connection between the brand and its audience.
This trend mirrors historical shifts seen in other industries. During the Industrial Revolution, technological advancements improved worker productivity, leading to higher standards of living even as work hours gradually declined. Today, AI and blockchain are poised to similarly transform the entertainment landscape—enabling fans to reallocate their time towards more creative, rewarding pursuits while actively contributing to and benefiting from the growth of entertainment franchises.
The traditional notion that there's a fixed amount of work to go around—the lump of labor fallacy—has been proven wrong time and time again. The elasticity of labor means that "the new jobs" we create in place of old jobs lost, will often be jobs that we wouldn't even consider "jobs" in the first place a decade ago.
As technology shifts the job landscape, people will have more time not only to consume content but also to create it, to participate in fandoms, and even to monetize those passions. This blurring of the lines between consumption and creation is the future of entertainment.
The franchises of tomorrow will be the ones that turn fans into collaborators, recognizing the power of a passionate audience to expand a brand's universe in ways no centralized team could manage alone. FaaS represents the logical end state for this trajectory—a model where fans help create value for their favorite franchises and, in return, capture some of that value for themselves.
This brings us back to the core idea: the future of entertainment isn’t just about creating content—it’s about creating opportunities. FaaS not only redefines the relationship between fans and franchises but also shows how embracing fan contributions can propel a brand to new heights. By turning fans into creators and stakeholders, the entertainment industry can fully harness the power of passionate audiences, ensuring a thriving ecosystem where both the franchise and its fans succeed.
As always, reach out to me on X or Farcaster if you have feedback or are working on something cool you want to discuss.
