We are in an age of mega celebrity. It is everywhere, records are being broken regularly, and the intensity required to be a “fan” feels like it is increasing all the time.

We are seeing an incredible growth of celebrity but we are also seeing the end of an era in many ways. The next 5 years is the Red Giant of its lifetime: Bigger, more colourful and harder to ignore than ever, but ultimately at the end of its life.

There could be no more real example than that of Psy. Gangnam Style is catchy, a bit weird and massively popular. Even with over a billion total views, Psy isn’t getting paid:

Psy’s 900 million video views and 1.3 billion youtube account visits have resulted in $870,000 worth of ad revenue sharing. From the 2.7 million iTunes downloads Psy has earned $2.4 million. His streaming revenues are relatively paltry, a mere $60,000.

There will be more Psy’s, but then there will be none.