The dataset
Every node and every connection on the map, with its date, its note, its sources, its source tier and its confidence, in three formats. The workbook carries formula driven summary sheets by metro, layer and kind; the JSON is the file the map itself reads.
Creator_Economy_Map_Dataset.xlsx
Nodes, Edges, Failures, Acquisitions, Metros, Layer counts, Failure modes and a Read me sheet. Counts on the summary sheets are formulas over the Nodes and Edges sheets.
Creator_Economy_Map.pdf
The written reference as a printable document, the same text as the reference pages here.
data.json
Nodes and edges with every field, including placement year and basis, geography, source tiers and flags.
How to read the fields
Each node carries a kind, a layer, a metro, a founding year and end year where recorded, the year it entered the creator economy and the basis for that placement, a role, its status in 2026, a failure flag, its embeddedness as a count of connections, a method note, the people named in sources, its sources, a confidence rating, its strongest source tier and any flagged discrepancies. Each edge carries a relationship type, a timing field and its type, a note, a source and a confidence rating. Dollar figures appear only where disclosed or reported and never weight an edge.
Source tiers: 196 nodes carry a primary or company source, 260 rest on trade or financial press, 107 on another web source, and 11 on a general reference alone. The method chapter has the full account of confidence, dating and the source upgrade pass.
Method and sources Open the map
Citation
The Music Cities™ and BusinessFlare® (2026). The Creator Economy Map: how attention becomes goods, jobs and places, 2005 to 2026. Version 1.3.3. https://creators.businessflare.net