7 ms·

Are you being ironic? Of course there's something to see: the latest glacial shift in the accretion of content control by tech platforms.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
BryantD 6y ago
Do you maybe have a graph of what the overall picture of content control by a handful of companies looks like over, say, the last 50 years?
- minimuffins 6y ago
  No, do you? If there's an implicit argument in that question I'm not able to discern it.
  - neolog 6y ago
    It's probably that Spotify has less control than the big record labels did.
akiselev 6y ago
> Of course there's something to see: the latest glacial shift in the accretion of content control by tech platforms. The other side of the coin is that everyone is selling out. We're just returning to the patronage (clientela) model where everyone parrots the patrons for a cut of the profit, legal contract and everything - except Joe Rogan isn't at risk of dying destitute if he doesn't comply and his patrons are faceless corporations.
SllX 6y ago
As opposed to content control by publishers, network television, the FCC, and studios? Spotify is not above criticism, I think it is entirely legitimate and called for to criticize Spotify without overstating your case.
- theptip 6y ago
  This. Content producers have more freedom now than at any point in history. Previously you had to find a radio/tv station to publish your show. Now you can record it and broadcast it on YouTube or any podcast platform. (Repeat for "newspaper=>blog,twitter,substack", etc.) The story here is that Rogan took his show off YouTube and onto Spotify as part of a huge licensing deal. Nothing was stopping him from controlling his work prior to that deal.
Pfhreak 6y ago
> latest glacial shift in the accretion of content control by tech platforms It's weird that folks are pointing to a phenomena that's been going on for generations as if it is something novel. There have always been winners and losers in who controls the message. While tech companies seem to be aggregating control over some of the message, it's not like corporate America hasn't had control for a long, long time. Whether it was print, radio, television, cinema, blogs, podcasts, music, or some other media, there's a centralization tendency. We've had breakout periods of democratization along the way, and today I think we're more democratized than we were historically. I'd wager that diverse views are more available today than they were in, say, the 80s.
- drcongo 6y ago
  These people have never seen Network.
  - Pfhreak 6y ago
    Honestly, most of them probably haven't. Network is almost 50 years old now. "All I know is that first you've got to get mad. You've got to say: 'I'm a human being, god-dammit! My life has value!'" is as relevant in 2021 as it was the 1970s, apparently.
- skohan 6y ago
  That may be true, but we're also witnessing one of those periods of consolidation of control right now. We could resign ourselves to history, or we could try to do something about it
  - Pfhreak 6y ago
    The thing that makes me less worried is that we're probably at one of the most open periods in history. Don't like Spotify? You've got about a million other options. Rogan freely chose to accept some limits in exchange for a truckload of cash. He was already doing quite well without Spotify, from what I understand. I think the framing that he was somehow unable to succeed without accepting censorship is a little off the mark. He made what appears to be a deliberate choice to limit his speech to make more money. Is that a failure? I dunno. It seems like part of freedom of speech should include the freedom to make the decision to stop talking about some things in exchange for cash.
rhizome 6y ago
The Statute of Anne is over 300 years old.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

BryantD 6y ago

Do you maybe have a graph of what the overall picture of content control by a handful of companies looks like over, say, the last 50 years?

minimuffins 6y ago
No, do you? If there's an implicit argument in that question I'm not able to discern it.
- neolog 6y ago
  It's probably that Spotify has less control than the big record labels did.

akiselev 6y ago

> Of course there's something to see: the latest glacial shift in the accretion of content control by tech platforms. The other side of the coin is that everyone is selling out. We're just returning to the patronage (clientela) model where everyone parrots the patrons for a cut of the profit, legal contract and everything - except Joe Rogan isn't at risk of dying destitute if he doesn't comply and his patrons are faceless corporations.

SllX 6y ago

As opposed to content control by publishers, network television, the FCC, and studios? Spotify is not above criticism, I think it is entirely legitimate and called for to criticize Spotify without overstating your case.

theptip 6y ago
This. Content producers have more freedom now than at any point in history. Previously you had to find a radio/tv station to publish your show. Now you can record it and broadcast it on YouTube or any podcast platform. (Repeat for "newspaper=>blog,twitter,substack", etc.) The story here is that Rogan took his show off YouTube and onto Spotify as part of a huge licensing deal. Nothing was stopping him from controlling his work prior to that deal.

Pfhreak 6y ago

> latest glacial shift in the accretion of content control by tech platforms It's weird that folks are pointing to a phenomena that's been going on for generations as if it is something novel. There have always been winners and losers in who controls the message. While tech companies seem to be aggregating control over some of the message, it's not like corporate America hasn't had control for a long, long time. Whether it was print, radio, television, cinema, blogs, podcasts, music, or some other media, there's a centralization tendency. We've had breakout periods of democratization along the way, and today I think we're more democratized than we were historically. I'd wager that diverse views are more available today than they were in, say, the 80s.

drcongo 6y ago
These people have never seen Network.
- Pfhreak 6y ago
  Honestly, most of them probably haven't. Network is almost 50 years old now. "All I know is that first you've got to get mad. You've got to say: 'I'm a human being, god-dammit! My life has value!'" is as relevant in 2021 as it was the 1970s, apparently.
skohan 6y ago
That may be true, but we're also witnessing one of those periods of consolidation of control right now. We could resign ourselves to history, or we could try to do something about it
- Pfhreak 6y ago
  The thing that makes me less worried is that we're probably at one of the most open periods in history. Don't like Spotify? You've got about a million other options. Rogan freely chose to accept some limits in exchange for a truckload of cash. He was already doing quite well without Spotify, from what I understand. I think the framing that he was somehow unable to succeed without accepting censorship is a little off the mark. He made what appears to be a deliberate choice to limit his speech to make more money. Is that a failure? I dunno. It seems like part of freedom of speech should include the freedom to make the decision to stop talking about some things in exchange for cash.

rhizome 6y ago

The Statute of Anne is over 300 years old.