Chokepoint Capitalism: How Big Tech and Big Content Captured Creative Labor Markets and How We'll Win Them Back</a>Review:
By EricMesa
- One minute read - 180 wordsChokepoint Capitalism: How Big Tech and Big Content Captured Creative Labor Markets and How We’ll Win Them Back by Rebecca Giblin
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Rebecca Giblin and Corey Doctorow have written an incredibly important book for everyone to read, whether you’re a producer or consumer of cultural products (books, movies, music, etc). They do a great job of explaining how, over a bunch of industries, a handful of companies have made themselves into both monopolies and monopsonies. This allows them to screw over both the producers and the consumers by being the sole buyer and seller. Also shows how certain things like Spotify playlists are actually pretty insidious. (Spoiler: it’s because they train you not to care about the artist so that if the artist threatens to take their music off, no one will care)
The final chapter is key because the authors show that these changes are coming for all the industries, not just the creative ones. This should, I hope, create a better case for solidarity against the consolidation of companies.