On Spotify, Youtube, and Netflix You’re Paying the Wrong Person

Too Long; Didn't Read

The world today isn’t the same as it used to be even ten years ago — the amount of total information out there now <a href="http://www.industrytap.com/knowledge-doubling-every-12-months-soon-to-be-every-12-hours/3950" target="_blank">doubles</a> every 13 months. A century ago, our predecessors were consuming the contents of only one or two newspapers a day at best. Nowadays, we have much more information available to us: we have thousands of news sites on the Internet, we have Wikipedia, we have streaming platforms with tens of thousands of movies and TV shows. The supply and demand, especially for entertaining content, is enormous, and it’s hard to even choose anything among all this high-quality content. The capitalization of entertainment-related companies and content distributors has skyrocketed. Just take Netflix for example, it grew <a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/chart/NFLX/#eyJpbnRlcnZhbCI6IndlZWsiLCJwZXJpb2RpY2l0eSI6MSwidGltZVVuaXQiOm51bGwsImNhbmRsZVdpZHRoIjo2LjIwNjg5NjU1MTcyNDEzOCwidm9sdW1lVW5kZXJsYXkiOnRydWUsImFkaiI6dHJ1ZSwiY3Jvc3NoYWlyIjp0cnVlLCJjaGFydFR5cGUiOiJsaW5lIiwiZXh0ZW5kZWQiOmZhbHNlLCJtYXJrZXRTZXNzaW9ucyI6e30sImFnZ3JlZ2F0aW9uVHlwZSI6Im9obGMiLCJjaGFydFNjYWxlIjoibGluZWFyIiwic3R1ZGllcyI6eyJ2b2wgdW5kciI6eyJ0eXBlIjoidm9sIHVuZHIiLCJpbnB1dHMiOnsiaWQiOiJ2b2wgdW5kciIsImRpc3BsYXkiOiJ2b2wgdW5kciJ9LCJvdXRwdXRzIjp7IlVwIFZvbHVtZSI6IiMwMGIwNjEiLCJEb3duIFZvbHVtZSI6IiNGRjMzM0EifSwicGFuZWwiOiJjaGFydCIsInBhcmFtZXRlcnMiOnsid2lkdGhGYWN0b3IiOjAuNDUsImNoYXJ0TmFtZSI6ImNoYXJ0In19fSwicGFuZWxzIjp7ImNoYXJ0Ijp7InBlcmNlbnQiOjEsImRpc3BsYXkiOiJORkxYIiwiY2hhcnROYW1lIjoiY2hhcnQiLCJ0b3AiOjB9fSwic2V0U3BhbiI6eyJtdWx0aXBsaWVyIjo1LCJiYXNlIjoieWVhciIsInBlcmlvZGljaXR5Ijp7InBlcmlvZCI6MSwiaW50ZXJ2YWwiOiJ3ZWVrIn19LCJsaW5lV2lkdGgiOjIsInN0cmlwZWRCYWNrZ3JvdWQiOnRydWUsImV2ZW50cyI6dHJ1ZSwiY29sb3IiOiIjMDA4MWYyIiwiZXZlbnRNYXAiOnsiY29ycG9yYXRlIjp7ImRpdnMiOnRydWUsInNwbGl0cyI6dHJ1ZX0sInRlY2huaWNhbCI6e30sInNpZ0RldiI6e319LCJjdXN0b21SYW5nZSI6bnVsbCwic3ltYm9scyI6W3sic3ltYm9sIjoiTkZMWCIsInN5bWJvbE9iamVjdCI6eyJzeW1ib2wiOiJORkxYIn0sInBlcmlvZGljaXR5IjoxLCJpbnRlcnZhbCI6IndlZWsiLCJ0aW1lVW5pdCI6bnVsbCwic2V0U3BhbiI6eyJtdWx0aXBsaWVyIjo1LCJiYXNlIjoieWVhciIsInBlcmlvZGljaXR5Ijp7InBlcmlvZCI6MSwiaW50ZXJ2YWwiOiJ3ZWVrIn19fV19" target="_blank">eight times</a> its original size in the last five years. The only people who don’t get too much from all this content abundance are the people who create it for distributors. For creators, it’s still hard to monetize their own content as the biggest slice of the pie goes to providers. Is there any way to change this situation?