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Rory Flynn’s case for Midjourney is practical: use it to fill small creative-production gaps, then bring human judgment, editing and review to the result. In a January 2024 interview, the Systematiq AI founder described ways to turn generated images into business assets and warned about copyright and deepfakes. Those ideas remain useful, but they are not proof of reliable earnings or a guide to today’s interface. The interview’s “deepfake drama” refers to societal risks—not an allegation that Flynn created a particular deceptive image.
The short version: Midjourney can help a marketer, designer or small business make visual concepts and campaign assets faster. It does not remove the work of finding a customer, shaping a brand, choosing and editing images, or checking rights. Flynn’s interview offers practical ideas, not audited income figures. And a paid Midjourney plan’s commercial-use terms do not make every output legally cleared for every use.
Who is Rory Flynn?
In an interview published by Kripesh Adwani and updated January 13, 2024, Flynn is introduced as founder of Systematiq AI, an operational-AI consultancy. He describes a background in digital marketing, email marketing and paid media, and says he entered AI about a year before the conversation. He presents himself as an educator and consultant helping businesses identify where AI tools might address practical workflow gaps. Read the interview.
Flynn later became a co-host, with Drew Brucker, of Midjourney Fast Hours. Its Spotify for Creators listing describes a show about Midjourney tutorials, workflows, business uses and monetization. That establishes his ongoing public focus; it is not independent evidence of the profitability of any business model.
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Midjourney as a tool for the small visual gap
Flynn’s most useful idea is to avoid treating image generation as a one-click replacement for a creative department. Instead, use it where a business needs a visual starting point or a modest asset quickly: a website background, texture, gradient, decorative element, email image, campaign concept, product moodboard or branded stock-style image. Apparel patterns, wall art, mugs and T-shirt concepts are further possibilities.
These are examples of tasks, not promises that a generated image will be ready to publish. A business still needs to choose among outputs, make them fit the brief, check text and composition, adapt them to the destination, and review brand, accessibility and legal concerns. A rough concept for discussion is also a different deliverable from a final production asset.
Flynn’s prompting approach: build, combine, refine
Flynn discusses controls and techniques including aspect ratio, stylization, chaos, image weight, image prompting and blending. His workflow is iterative: generate a base subject or scene; create a separate texture, pattern or detail; then use image references or blending to combine elements and regenerate until the result is useful.
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Outbyte Driver Updater FREEScan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Outbyte PC Repair FREEClear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →- Start with the job. Define the audience, destination and visual purpose before writing a prompt.
- Generate a base. Focus on the subject, composition and broad visual direction.
- Develop details separately. Make a pattern, texture or other element that can be introduced as a reference.
- Combine and compare. Try the elements together, produce alternatives and assess them against the brief.
- Edit and review. Correct shortcomings where possible, keep records of the model and workflow, and obtain human approval before commercial use.
This is Flynn’s advice from a 2024 conversation, not a guaranteed recipe for precise control. Midjourney’s interface, model behavior and parameter names change. A prompt can steer a result without reliably enforcing exact product geometry, layout, identity or brand rules.
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Can you make money with Midjourney?
Flynn says people can make money with it and points to several routes. The interview does not give audited revenue, margins, conversion rates, customer counts or evidence that a typical user will succeed. Treat these as business models to test—not established income opportunities.
| Route | What a customer pays for | What can make it work—or fail |
|---|---|---|
| AI-assisted creative services | Campaign concepts, email imagery, web visuals or social assets delivered against a client brief. | Value comes from understanding the brief, making coherent choices and handling revisions. Generic images without a clear business purpose are easy to ignore. |
| Branded image packages | A curated set of visuals, such as a campaign library or repeatable visual direction. | Consistency, usage guidance and human review matter. A client may require privacy, disclosure or specific rights assurances. |
| Concepts and moodboards | Early visual exploration before a photo shoot, design commission or product decision. | Useful for discussion and direction-setting, but concepts should not be represented as accurate depictions of a product that does not yet exist. |
| Print-on-demand | Products such as wall art, apparel or mugs featuring a design. | Production, shipping, marketplace fees, advertising, support and competition all affect the economics. Similar-looking generated designs are not a business advantage by themselves. |
| Stock-style libraries | A focused collection of images for a business or niche. | Buyers need relevant, usable assets. Similarity, licensing, model or property releases, and the buyer’s intended use require attention. |
| Education, consulting or affiliate work | Training, workflow advice or referrals related to AI tools. | Instruction must stay current and provide more than basic prompts. Disclose commercial relationships and avoid earnings promises. |
The more defensible opportunity is often selling a service or solving a defined client problem—not uploading undifferentiated AI art and expecting passive income. A useful test is whether the customer would still value the offer for its curation, speed, brand fit, workflow or expertise if image generation were only one part of how it was made.
Count the work, not just the subscription
Revenue is not profit. A simple model is:
Operating profit = revenue − subscription − extra generation costs − production labor − editing − marketplace and payment fees − advertising − revisions − refunds and support − relevant tax and legal costs.
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For a service business, time spent on client discovery, prompt iteration, selection, edits and approvals may outweigh the software bill. For print-on-demand, manufacturing, shipping, promotion and customer support matter. For any commercial project, a rights dispute or a client’s rejection can also carry a cost. The interview provides no figures for these variables, so it cannot establish likely earnings or margins.
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Copyright, commercial permissions and other rights are different questions
Flynn recommends caution: avoid recognizable copyrighted characters, do not use living artists’ names as shortcuts for a style, and investigate outputs that look close to existing work. A reverse-image search can be one screening step, but it cannot establish legal clearance. An image may resemble work that is not indexed, and a search does not resolve every relevant right.
Flynn also offers a simplified view that purely AI-generated material cannot receive copyright protection in the United States. He is not a lawyer, and that sentence is not a complete legal answer. Copyright questions can depend on the human contribution and the specific work; other jurisdictions may differ. Copyright is only one issue. Trademarks, publicity and likeness rights, privacy, platform terms and misleading commercial claims can raise separate concerns.
Midjourney’s current plan documentation says subscribers may use generated images and videos commercially, subject to its terms. It also says companies with more than $1 million in annual gross revenue must subscribe to Pro or Mega. This is a platform permission, not a guarantee that an image is free of third-party claims or suitable for every client or marketplace. Review the current terms and the rules of the place where you plan to publish or sell.
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- Do not treat an artist-name prompt or a reverse-image search as a substitute for rights review.
- Ask clients whether they require disclosure, documentation, particular permissions or limits on AI use.
- Keep prompt, model and editing records where provenance matters; records help explain a workflow but do not prove legal safety.
- For high-stakes campaigns, obtain qualified legal advice and consider commissioning or licensing assets with clearer provenance.
What the “deepfake drama” actually means
The interview’s deepfake discussion is about synthetic media’s social risks, not a reported controversy involving Flynn. He raises concern about realistic avatars and manipulated media, misuse, and people’s ability to recognize synthetic content. Awareness may make viewers more skeptical, but it is not a detection system and cannot reliably establish whether a particular image or video is authentic.
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The risks include nonconsensual sexual imagery, fraud and impersonation, political misinformation, reputation attacks, fabricated evidence, and misuse of someone’s face or voice. Reposted content can lose its original context, while parody, fiction and deception may be difficult for viewers to distinguish. For creators and businesses, a responsible baseline is to use fictional or authorized subjects, avoid deceptive presentation, clearly label synthetic material when context calls for it, and never assume that a tool’s ability to generate a likeness means you have permission to use it.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What has changed since the 2024 interview?
Flynn’s comparison of tools is a snapshot of his experience at the time, not a current benchmark. In the interview, he characterizes Midjourney as aesthetically strong but less literal about prompts than DALL·E 3, and describes Stable Diffusion as more technical, customizable and demanding to set up. He also mentions Leonardo and other accessible alternatives. Capabilities and product names evolve, so compare tools on your actual brief rather than treating those characterizations as settled rankings.
As checked in August 2026, Midjourney’s official site displayed version 8.2 and image- and video-creation controls. Its plan comparison listed Basic at $10 per month, Standard at $30, Pro at $60 and Mega at $120; annual billing was listed at a 20% discount. Prices, limits and capabilities can change, so confirm them on the official page before subscribing.
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| Plan detail (August 2026 check) | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Standard, Pro and Mega include unlimited image generations in Relax mode. | Potentially useful for high-volume image exploration; “unlimited” does not eliminate waiting, selection or editing time. |
| Stealth mode is limited to Pro and Mega. | Relevant for work where public visibility is a concern. Check the current privacy documentation and workflow before uploading confidential material. |
| Extra GPU time is listed at $4 per hour. | Additional generation time can add to the subscription cost. |
| Subscribers may use generated images and videos commercially under the stated terms; companies above $1 million annual gross revenue must use Pro or Mega. | Check eligibility and terms for the actual subscriber and intended use; this does not clear third-party rights. |
Subscriptions are managed through Midjourney’s account and plan pages and renew automatically unless canceled, according to its subscription instructions. Treat the model version and plan details above as dated information, not permanent product facts.
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When Midjourney is—and is not—a sensible choice
Midjourney is worth testing if the task benefits from visually rich concepts, moodboards, marketing imagery or rapid exploration, and you can afford time for iteration and curation. It may be a poor fit when the work requires exact text-heavy layouts, strict brand compliance, reproducible production, confidential inputs without suitable privacy controls, precise product geometry, or automated pipelines with requirements the tool cannot meet.
Alternatives may fit different jobs: Canva’s AI tools place image creation inside a broader design workflow; Runway is worth considering when motion and video are central; Stability AI may suit technically capable users seeking deployment flexibility; and Leonardo AI offers another creative suite. OpenAI’s current image tools can be explored through OpenAI. Check each provider’s current features, privacy, pricing and commercial terms; these options are not interchangeable, and this is not a product benchmark.
A go/no-go checklist for a commercial project
- Go if you can define the business purpose, audience, output format and review criteria before generating.
- Go cautiously if you have a clear plan for human selection, editing, brand review and client approval.
- Pause if the work uses confidential product plans and your plan or workflow does not provide the privacy you need.
- Pause if the result relies on a real person’s likeness, a protected character, a recognizable logo or an artist’s signature style.
- Rework the offer if its only selling point is that it was generated quickly; build value through a niche, service, art direction or workflow.
- Do not promise returns without evidence. Price in labor, revisions, distribution and risk, not just the generator subscription.
Flynn’s durable point is that AI can multiply a capable person’s output, but it does not supply the brief, taste, trust or market demand. Midjourney can be a useful part of a commercial workflow; whether that workflow makes money depends on the customer problem solved and the costs and rights managed around it.
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