What’s wrong with this picture?
Lots of rumors floating around this week about the possibility of a Pandora sellout.
What strikes me as the most obscene aspect of this story can be found in the opening statement from Pandora’s CEO, Brian McAndrews:
“We won’t comment on rumors. We will say we’re very confident in our ability to drive significant value to our shareholders”.
This is worth breaking down for a moment, because this type of language is used so often that our brains are mostly numb to it. So here it is again, so that we may focus with laser-sharp clarity.
“Very confident…
in our ability…
to drive significant value…
…TO SHAREHOLDERS.”
What are the other ways this sentence could be formed?
“We’re very confident in our ability to… pay artists fairly for using their content.”
“We’re very confident in our ability to… create an enjoyable, stable service for our listeners. One that doesn’t get swallowed up and re-purposed by a larger corporation who will eviscerate it’s core features and data-mine the f*** out of our users.”
Well, yeah, that last one got a bit wordy, but hopefully you get the point. If not let’s state it clearly once again. (Mostly because I’m so incensed as to want to shout it from the virtual rooftops until my throat is raw.)
The most important thing for Pandora is to “drive significant value” to their shareholders. Not the musicians who supply the content. Not the listeners who tune in every day. Not even the advertisers who pay the bulk of their operating expenses.
The shareholders.
And this ladies and gentlemen is everything that is wrong with the music business today.
Ever since the Great Selloff in the 90s, when corporations started to swallow up the major record labels (that were actually run by music people and not investor bankers and stock market wankers) the music industry has been sliding down a long slow path to cultural oblivion.
And now, tech is accelerating that phenomenon in ways that are frightening to contemplate. If this isn’t totally apparent, then it is highly recommended to read Casey Rae’s latest rant about the Post-Unicorn Age that is upon us.
Here’s one significant excerpt:
Over the past decade, musicians and other creators have assumed the role of digital nomads, packing up wagons loaded with metadata, audio files, fan contacts and setting up in tent cities outside of the impossibly high, exquisitely gilded gates of neoliberal globalization. No sooner do we establish community in service of skint enterprise, then we’re forced to decamp when the infrastructure on which we depend is disassembled, absorbed or sold for scraps. Instead of a generative universe of useful innovations, we’re stuck with whatever tools are deemed non-threatening to the interests of a handful of companies in media and technology who operate at unfathomable scale.
As someone who is committed to building an infrastructure that does the exact opposite, I’m quite disturbed at these trends. That tech is swallowing up all channels and pathways of communication to the extent that they are close to capturing the last mile of cognitive movement… the very thoughts that inhabit our over-saturated brains. For soon it will be impossible for most people to out-think the deluge of info-bytes and decision-bits being funneled into their frontal lobes by a select few mega-mega-corps that have only one interest at heart… expanding their own market share at the expense of all unique culture, independent thought and authentic forms of human expression.
It will seem to be an era of abundant originality, but behind whatever form the latest amusement and clever distraction takes, there will always lurk the Almighty Algorithm, forever operating in the shadows with only one aim at heart… to return value to shareholders.
The darkest hour…
Yes, it may be true, that a light is appearing on the horizon. I could go into great detail about the numerous ways we may yet turn back from the cliff of digital cognitive servitude, but I’d rather get back to work, building our small corner of a decentralized, distributed, people-powered future.
For now, a small proposition…
Keep an eye out for the platform Coop Crusade. The Blockchain Backslap. The Decentralized Disobedience. It will take on many names, but the aim is the same… to liberate us before the virtual corporate panopticon seizes every last corner of the planet… and our very minds.
