Getting Paid and Getting Played in the new economy.
Crypto, Spotify payola and some genius marketing from Patagonia.
If I was doing one of those Carrie Bradshaw, “I couldn’t help but think….” pieces it would be something along the lines of, “I couldn’t help but wonder if the new economy is just like the old economy. Same people getting paid, same people getting played.”
I love Cryptokitties. To be clear I haven’t bought a kitty but I just love the idea that we live in a world where it is possible to do this. Big Tech, (Facebook, Google, Uber, etc ) is taking a beating right now — and rightly so, they got work to do— but as long something like the Ethereum platform (blockchain, whatever) exists then people will have ideas like this. I’m always trying to figure out what the user applications of technology are that really breakthrough. This could be the make or break of blockchain. It will be fascinating to watch what happens.
If you had told me even seven days ago that at the betaworks holiday dinner this week we would have all stopped eating and drinking at 9pm to play a trivia quiz on a few phones for the chance of winning $1000 I would have said you were mad. But that’s what happened. A, supposedly, educated group of people all played HQ. Most people fucked up early on, “What does the S in SIM card stand for?”(Subscriber) but Dom, our designer, got that right and we kept going. It was the first time I had seen it. And it was instantly addictive.
Like Cryptokitties I’m excited that there is still space for things like this to flourish. Ok, the founders made Vine so they know what they are doing, but there is (was?) a notion that it was impossible to make new stuff — Tech Crunch wrote a piece about the seed stage IMPLOSION (!) — cos the Big Four are untouchable. HQ and Cryptokitties prove that’s not remotely true.
One of the reasons that HQ works is that it is an ‘old media’ mechanism — the TV Gameshow’ updated for the mobile age. Silicon Valley would sometimes have us believe that you have to disrupt every single thing about the old economy but it’s not true. We are also led to believe by new economy companies (Startups) that everything in the past was evil (old companies) and everything about the new economy is righteous and is going to, ugh, make the world a better place.
I would have certainly tweeted about that notion — cos it’s bullshit. First up — the best thing that any company did this week is announce that they are going to sue the President over the Bears Ears national park. Patagonia can do this because they have been — literally — trying to save the world since the day they opened up for business. If you are in any doubt about the authenticity of this move read ‘Let My People Go Surfing’ by Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard. It’s is the best business book I have ever read.
There was an interesting discussion about Patreon changing their payment terms. Patreon is one of those New Co’s that is ‘making the world a better place’ through letting fans pay artists directly. A sort of ongoing Kickstarter. Patreon exists because, you know, the old system was evil and artists deserve better. So when they changed their payment terms to charge each supporter each time they pay a donation — rather than a one off fee — people were upset. Even though Patreon would argue that the artist is now getting more money that’s only true because the supporters are having to pay an admin fee each time they support. It’s a murky area that has to do with PayPal and credit card charges and all that jazz. You can go deep here if you like, but the bottom line is Patreon exists to make money — not to save struggling artists. They have figured out there is a way to make money though telling people that there is a better way to support artists, but it’s still a business.
New co’s exist to make money first and — maybe — make the world a better place. Same as it ever was. Had I had been on twitter I would have definitely tweeted that the Documentary Now spoof of Talking Heads is pretty funny. I got round to watching it this week.
But I would have spent most of my week tweeting about Spotify data. Ah, Spotify, you know I love you. Always have. And so when you do something like the personalized end of year data dump — 2017 Wrapped — I get kinda excited. My god, they normally do this so well. It’s the perfect marketing mix of retention and acquisition. Retention through the confirmation that you use the service a lot (‘What would I do without this?’) and that you have great taste in music. The acquisition comes through the persistent — but not too persistent — call to share your playlists with your friends. Which obviously I am about to do now, but I certainly would have done on twitter too. For the record, Creative Directors need to show people that they are cooler than everyone else. That’s how we make money.
So, my year end Spotify data. It started out ok in terms of the genres. I mean how cool is ‘Indietronica, Garage Psyche, Post Rock, Space Rock and Fluxwork’ ? I don’t even know WTF Fluxwork is, but I love that I listen to it. Or maybe I do — because here’s the thing what happened next rocked — rocked I tell you! — my whole belief in the accuracy and sanctity of Spotify’s data.
First up when I looked at my top songs that made sense. But my top artists were completely wrong. There were four artists each with one or, at most, two songs that I had only ever played once. It didn’t make sense but whatever, no real biggie.
But then the shit hit the fan. I was in a meeting air-playing a presentation and somehow left my music playing. Schoolboy error, but normally no problem because I listen to cool music. But suddenly my team is laughing at me. The song that was being played was not cool. How did this happen? My spotify weekly discovery may not always be spot on but it’s never terrible. It’s always cool.
Part of the 2017 Wrapped promo was a playlist called ‘The Ones that Got Away’. Now, from the copy, I am led to be believed that this is a list of songs that are little undiscovered gems, just for me. That sounds amazing — that’s what I love about Spotify. I rarely listen to a song more than once, I just love new shit. So I clicked on that playlist, probably listened to a few songs and then went to my meeting — cue embarrassment.
I was so mortified by this that I did a little investigative work. It turns out that several people in the office, with completely different taste to me ( I do have weird taste in music, I am cool ) had the same songs on their playlist. People who listen to punk rock and hip hop all had the same track from Grizzly Bear and St Vincent, among others. So was this a playlist of undiscovered gems just for me or was this…….a <gasp> sponsored playlist?
There doesn’t seem to be any definitive answer to whether record labels pay for songs to be on playlists or not. Spotify obviously dismiss the idea but industry insiders believe it happens. My take would be that it happened before with radio so it’s going to happen here. Whether it’s as obvious as the payola scandals of radio or more subtle, if you’re a record label you’re going to do whatever you can to get your song onto the end of year ‘Ones that Got Away’.
To be clear I actually wouldn’t mind if that playlist was sponsored. Business is business — I want Spotify to make money. I just don’t like being tricked into thinking it’s one thing when it’s the other. Don’t make me play bad songs on Spotify, it fucks up my algorithm and makes me look uncool.
Doug Rushkoff has this saying about coding, if you’re not programming then you are being programmed. It’s a similar idea that people have talked about regarding Facebook and other social media. If you are not paying for the product then you are the product. The relationship between who is getting paid or played continues in our new economy. I can pay over $100k for a blockchain cyberkitty if I want. Or I can watch HQ for the chance to win some money — right now I am paying with my attention . Get me hooked then sell me ads — classic NewCo pay for play. I can pay a premium for Spotify with no ads or I can choose to support an artist through Patreon. As the tech gets more complex, smart people will figure out new ways to get paid.
But the smartest companies stand up for something beyond money and they have that at their core. That’s untouchable by technology.
The President Stole Your Land.
