I’m not sure I have time to go into this completely but what you are describing as good has objectively been a death sentence to tons of musicians.
Spotify is the biggest music streaming platform right? Did you know that they actually charge artists to be on their radios (you know the things they use dark patterns in their apps to drive you to)? You literally can’t be in the prime spots for visibility on the app without paying a tax to the company. Did you know that the music industry basically coerces artists into a system of indentured servitude where they are stuck in a debt trap with the large mega studios that got their album made (they also retain no rights to the master and essentially do not own their own work)?
That price comes from companies squeezing out the variety in the music we hear to be just the shit that bangs the hardest in the most inoffensive and generic way to the most people. Depressing for that to be how art is made no? This is what Netflix is ALREADY doing.
Rest assured your “value” will be realized in more ads and membership tiers they can stick on top of content they previous had to pay exorbitant licensing costs on. Rest assure it will be more middle of the road slop that Netflix is already famous for because its just good enough people will watch it even though it is devoid of all kind of unique character.
This merger will hurt the artists who pump out your favorite shows today. There is not a shadow of a doubt in my mind.
I guess I personally don’t really see enshitification happening to things with a producer-distribution model. Besides music, there are podcasts, app/play store, and video games which never really went through enshitification where I’m like forced to watch more ads, so it isn’t likely video will either, at least in my opinion.
Amazon prime tried it with adding a lot of ads and people just stopped watching Amazon shows, entirely. Like music, there’s just too much content to watch out there.
The podcast industry is dominated by iHeartRadio. There are plenty of independent platforms but they have an outsized influence on the market which determines what kind of content wins and loses. Also fuck loads of ads which sucks ass. As an aside they have also ruined a lot of radio by buying up local stations and cramming them with ads too.
Apps on iPhone are literally distributed by a single store with no options for side loading where they get to decide if you’re allowed to publish content and if you’re allowed to install it. Android is slightly less bad but they are moving in this direction currently and functionally a very small percentage of people ever leaves the Play store ecosystem anyway.
Video games and micro transactions that plague so many games? Loot boxes and gambling? DLC for things that used to be free updates? You must be young and don’t remember how things used to be.
Apps and video games have been thoroughly enshittified, at least on mobile, but also partially on desktop. Amazon Prime is also still very successful and people have not stopped watching Amazon shows entirely.
I’m not sure I have time to go into this completely but what you are describing as good has objectively been a death sentence to tons of musicians.
Spotify is the biggest music streaming platform right? Did you know that they actually charge artists to be on their radios (you know the things they use dark patterns in their apps to drive you to)? You literally can’t be in the prime spots for visibility on the app without paying a tax to the company. Did you know that the music industry basically coerces artists into a system of indentured servitude where they are stuck in a debt trap with the large mega studios that got their album made (they also retain no rights to the master and essentially do not own their own work)?
That price comes from companies squeezing out the variety in the music we hear to be just the shit that bangs the hardest in the most inoffensive and generic way to the most people. Depressing for that to be how art is made no? This is what Netflix is ALREADY doing.
Rest assured your “value” will be realized in more ads and membership tiers they can stick on top of content they previous had to pay exorbitant licensing costs on. Rest assure it will be more middle of the road slop that Netflix is already famous for because its just good enough people will watch it even though it is devoid of all kind of unique character.
This merger will hurt the artists who pump out your favorite shows today. There is not a shadow of a doubt in my mind.
I guess I personally don’t really see enshitification happening to things with a producer-distribution model. Besides music, there are podcasts, app/play store, and video games which never really went through enshitification where I’m like forced to watch more ads, so it isn’t likely video will either, at least in my opinion.
Amazon prime tried it with adding a lot of ads and people just stopped watching Amazon shows, entirely. Like music, there’s just too much content to watch out there.
The podcast industry is dominated by iHeartRadio. There are plenty of independent platforms but they have an outsized influence on the market which determines what kind of content wins and loses. Also fuck loads of ads which sucks ass. As an aside they have also ruined a lot of radio by buying up local stations and cramming them with ads too.
Apps on iPhone are literally distributed by a single store with no options for side loading where they get to decide if you’re allowed to publish content and if you’re allowed to install it. Android is slightly less bad but they are moving in this direction currently and functionally a very small percentage of people ever leaves the Play store ecosystem anyway.
Video games and micro transactions that plague so many games? Loot boxes and gambling? DLC for things that used to be free updates? You must be young and don’t remember how things used to be.
Apps and video games have been thoroughly enshittified, at least on mobile, but also partially on desktop. Amazon Prime is also still very successful and people have not stopped watching Amazon shows entirely.