This is so true! I don't mean to hijack your comment to promote myself, but I recently wrote an article about Sam Altman suggesting you can use ChatGPT to call 300 restaurants to find the "best one for you", and it made me feel sick. It's so dystopian, and made me think about a quote from Kurt Vonnegut that has been making the rounds on the internet for years now where his wife suggests that he should buy a bunch of envelopes online, and he tells her that he has a hell of a good time going out to buy envelopes because he can observe life and talk to people.
Instead of using AI to call 300 restaurants, just go to a restaurant and ask someone there if the food is good.
Daniel Kling Lorentsen - a year or so ago, I was trying to draft a letter that required very specific wording - specific enough that it was tricky. For the most part, it was a straightforward business letter, nothing but boilerplate, with 1-2 sentences being difficult.
And someone suggested - quite seriously - that i use chatGPT to compose the entire letter.
I still can't quite believe that happened, but here we are.
As for your story - that's beyond absurd! And pointless. Word of mouth is always best when choosing restaurants.
I do believe (take this with a grain/pound of salt as I am a dyed in the wool romantic idealist and almost always wrong!!!) that AI will drive the culture to towards in person interactions because we will be unable to trust ANYTHING online. I hope so!!
I have come to the same conclusion myself. Maybe not everyone. Maybe society gets split in half between the ones that live their lives in AI created virtual realities and those of us that rejects it.
For you jazz fans, I stream two great non subscription channels, Jazz Con Class and KAJI. 99% commercial free, but I donate a good sum to each channel to support their excellence, instead of being fleeced monthly by the ungrateful corporate subscription services.
Likewise. Yes, free internet streaming. Both sites have websites with more info. This is old school 1970’s and before jazz. KAJI has more vocals and is a lighter listen than Jazz Con Class, which has no vocals but harder jazz and deep cuts. JCC has been an ongoing Jazz history lesson for me. I listen to both all day long in the house.
If you still can’t connect, use the Feedback tab and you will get a response from Jose Reyes who runs the station. Maybe he can send you a URL. Amazingly, this station is a one man operation.
FYI, I have a Bluesound player that I use to access through the Tune In app.
"One-man operation": a lot of good, basically unknown streaming audio sources are one-person setups. I used to have a streaming "station" in the mid-00s, mainly featuring Brazilian music that's pretty hard to find in Brazil itself. I really liked putting it together, but it was too "niche" to attract many listeners. Am thinking about starting up again on MixCloud, which might be a nice project for this winter. My tastes are all over the map (pretty literally), so while I'll definitely play some Brazilian stuff, there might also be gamelan, Arabic and Persian music, Corsican close-harmony vocals (which sound very Arabic), Latin jazz - whatever works, either within a theme or where juxtapositions of very different things might show a lot of commonalities. (That really hit me on long drives, when I had my iPod on "shuffle," as it more or less created setlists for an imaginary radio station that played West African and Brazilian music + a track or two from the Balkans, Italy, the Arab world, etc. It's really fascinating to segue from one piece to the next in that way, a bit less haphazardly than the "shuffle" algorithm allowed for...)
My wife and I made a decision to work towards zero entertainment subscriptions three years ago. Netflix was the last to go, last year. It feels so liberating!
Plus, Goodwill has DVDs. Try search on eBay. Also Tubi is free online and has search by categories. We have AppleTV box but stopped our subscription to them. Amazon Prime we refuse again. YouTube searched does have lots of classic movies. Plus you can cast any video from your phone to TV.
Yes to buying physical DVDs for media. Most are less than $5. One can buy 4 month to equal monthly subscription. Hubby has become an eBay whiz searching for even rare titles. But Reading is Eternal. It makes YOU richer!
Another excellent piece, Ted. On this subject of subscriptions, I fully support what you and others do here on your blog (and other platforms). It seems to be the replacement for much of mainstream publishing.
But I would add this: As a subscriber I am woefully limited in how many writers/musicians I can afford to support. If I pay you a monthly fee (which I do), I then have to bypass another's blog because I can't afford to pay for more than those I currently subscribe to.
I'd love to hear your thoughts on a platform such as Flattr, where the user pays a flat monthly fee (determined by the user, herself), and that fee is divided between the writers/musicians she actually visits. A simple click on an icon (such as one here, on your blog), would represent a single "point". At the end of the month, the user's monthly payment would be evenly divided between those "points" that she clicked on. If she clicked on only ONE provider, that person would get ALL of her money that month, and so on.
This might mean less money from me to you, as the writer, but it would open up far more subscribers to you (at least, in theory). So if I decide to pay, say $20 per month, and I clicked on 50 items that month, each click would get 40 cents. If I had clicked on your site 8 times that month, you'd get $3.20. That's less than you're getting now, but if it doubled or tripled your readership, you'd come out ahead (plus, more people would be reading you).
I've long thought that micropayments were a good idea, and I still do. Would like to get your thoughts on that. Thanks again.
I just went to check out Flattr and it has been shut down. Too bad because I agree with you. I cant possibly afford to subscribe to all the substacks that Id like to read.
Great observations and thoughts. Reminds me of these thoughts that I shared with the Medium leadership many years ago (2016?) (and which sadly, seem to have been largely ignored).
A MaxFun podcast network subscription works this way. The network is a co-op too. I don’t think the artists are able to live off that though. They still do other work and accept sponsorships. Flattr might ultimately turn into Spotify with most ppl getting cents bc the popular artists get most of the website hits. Maybe within it there could be smaller collectives to support so people can get a bigger cut. 🤔
I've never been tempted to subscribe to any streaming service, even at the older lower prices and certainly have zero interest with these jacked up prices. Most popular culture is garbage anyway. If I want to listen to music, I'll buy albums like the dinosaur I am.
I’m happy I held on to our CD’s and albums all these years, even though I didn’t always understand why I did it. Heck, I’ve even got a briefcase full of cassette tapes somewhere.
Enshittification is definitely a thing, but it is different.
End-game strategies are about making more from less. They are usually shitty, but should only be deployed after your business has reached market saturation.
Enshittification is a continual practice, and can be deployed at ANY time in order to increase content or product. But it actually works AGAINST you in the long and medium timeframe, so deploying it too soon weakens your chance of making it to end-game.
My wife and I decided to cut subscriptions in half when the time comes. This was their plan all along, offer the teaser rates for two to three years then wham, higher prices and lower quality content.
I've never subscribed to a subscription service, so I am immune to this. I stopped watching television entirely in December of 2016 when I thought I would see if I could find a nice Christmas program. I stumbled across The Simpsons and saw Krusty the Klown burst out of a manger, laughing. That was it for me. No more of this in my house. Ever again. I don't even have a TV set now and am far better off for it, as are my children, who read and actually do things rather than watching others pretend to do things.
I was recently at a painter friend’s house and as we sat in her backyard painting, her son was building a Halloween display that he thought up and her 5 year old grandson was drawing a multi page book about his morning. This is what should replace tv for the most part.
That's a great analysis. It also explains the contempt with which some streamers treat their loyal customer base - e.g. Amazon Prime Video showing ads to paying subscribers. I'd like to hear more about how you think this mindset is affecting book publishing, if you've a spare minute. :)
Sure, I understand about licencing, but it tends to be either or - supported by ads OR subscription based. Are Hulu's ads for other shows? Or for general products and services? It just seems a bit greedy. They do it because they've locked in enough users. Though I see that Amazon are now offering a higher "no ads" version, but that's recent. And again, it's upselling a feature that should be standard (no ads). Anyway, what do I know - it just feels wrong.
Netflix now shows ads unless subscribers pay more. It costs over 20 $ per month to go ad-free. This just started at the beginning of last month.
Hulu shows minimal ads, *unless* a show is made by one of the Big Three networks. Then it's like watching via cable/over-the-air per the number of commercials + how frequently they're shown. True even though Disney owns Hulu now.
“Record labels now keep pushing old songs instead of developing new artists—and put most of their investment dollars into the rights to tunes from the distant past.”
My sister and I were just discussing this, vis-a-vis Spotify, during lunch.
Copyright has a great deal to do with that; also, back catalog is always mined, whether for reissues or broadcast. The major classical labels - DG, RCA, EMI, etc. - have always done that. It keeps costs down, and to be fair, there's a lot of fantastic music available for reissue. There are obvious Big Names that sell reissues, as well as relatively obscure perforners (by comparison) that people come across and that might draw them into listening to music they'd never have known about otherwise. (Composers, performers, repertoire.)
Seems to be the strategy that professional sports and college football are playing. Fewer customers, but every single one of them a rabid fan willing to spend a ton of money on their team.
You know what costs don't rise? Talking to people, reading, moving your body, going outside, writing.
[HIPPIE VOICE] IT'S TIME TO STREAM THAT THING CALLED LIFE, MAN.
This is so true! I don't mean to hijack your comment to promote myself, but I recently wrote an article about Sam Altman suggesting you can use ChatGPT to call 300 restaurants to find the "best one for you", and it made me feel sick. It's so dystopian, and made me think about a quote from Kurt Vonnegut that has been making the rounds on the internet for years now where his wife suggests that he should buy a bunch of envelopes online, and he tells her that he has a hell of a good time going out to buy envelopes because he can observe life and talk to people.
Instead of using AI to call 300 restaurants, just go to a restaurant and ask someone there if the food is good.
Daniel Kling Lorentsen - a year or so ago, I was trying to draft a letter that required very specific wording - specific enough that it was tricky. For the most part, it was a straightforward business letter, nothing but boilerplate, with 1-2 sentences being difficult.
And someone suggested - quite seriously - that i use chatGPT to compose the entire letter.
I still can't quite believe that happened, but here we are.
As for your story - that's beyond absurd! And pointless. Word of mouth is always best when choosing restaurants.
I do believe (take this with a grain/pound of salt as I am a dyed in the wool romantic idealist and almost always wrong!!!) that AI will drive the culture to towards in person interactions because we will be unable to trust ANYTHING online. I hope so!!
I have come to the same conclusion myself. Maybe not everyone. Maybe society gets split in half between the ones that live their lives in AI created virtual realities and those of us that rejects it.
If you're looking for hope for the future, it exists: https://joedonatelli.substack.com/p/tales-from-a-high-school-journalism
The only way to win the game is not to play.
So I don’t.
This is the way.
For you jazz fans, I stream two great non subscription channels, Jazz Con Class and KAJI. 99% commercial free, but I donate a good sum to each channel to support their excellence, instead of being fleeced monthly by the ungrateful corporate subscription services.
Good to see you here and at ACF. Are these internet streaming?
Likewise. Yes, free internet streaming. Both sites have websites with more info. This is old school 1970’s and before jazz. KAJI has more vocals and is a lighter listen than Jazz Con Class, which has no vocals but harder jazz and deep cuts. JCC has been an ongoing Jazz history lesson for me. I listen to both all day long in the house.
Can’t access the JCC stream from website
They have an app page here. https://jazzconclass.com/app-news/
If you still can’t connect, use the Feedback tab and you will get a response from Jose Reyes who runs the station. Maybe he can send you a URL. Amazingly, this station is a one man operation.
FYI, I have a Bluesound player that I use to access through the Tune In app.
"One-man operation": a lot of good, basically unknown streaming audio sources are one-person setups. I used to have a streaming "station" in the mid-00s, mainly featuring Brazilian music that's pretty hard to find in Brazil itself. I really liked putting it together, but it was too "niche" to attract many listeners. Am thinking about starting up again on MixCloud, which might be a nice project for this winter. My tastes are all over the map (pretty literally), so while I'll definitely play some Brazilian stuff, there might also be gamelan, Arabic and Persian music, Corsican close-harmony vocals (which sound very Arabic), Latin jazz - whatever works, either within a theme or where juxtapositions of very different things might show a lot of commonalities. (That really hit me on long drives, when I had my iPod on "shuffle," as it more or less created setlists for an imaginary radio station that played West African and Brazilian music + a track or two from the Balkans, Italy, the Arab world, etc. It's really fascinating to segue from one piece to the next in that way, a bit less haphazardly than the "shuffle" algorithm allowed for...)
thanks just sent comment on FB....I was on that app page or webpage and nowhere on page does it have a link to stream
Thank you for the heads up.
I need something like this and will be listening.
KCSM-FM
KCSM.org
Send $ when/if you can...
how do you stream from Jazz Con Class....cannot access the stream from the website
My wife and I made a decision to work towards zero entertainment subscriptions three years ago. Netflix was the last to go, last year. It feels so liberating!
Plus, Goodwill has DVDs. Try search on eBay. Also Tubi is free online and has search by categories. We have AppleTV box but stopped our subscription to them. Amazon Prime we refuse again. YouTube searched does have lots of classic movies. Plus you can cast any video from your phone to TV.
What do you do instead? Do you buy DVDs? Read?
Yes to buying physical DVDs for media. Most are less than $5. One can buy 4 month to equal monthly subscription. Hubby has become an eBay whiz searching for even rare titles. But Reading is Eternal. It makes YOU richer!
Sounds like the used thing is working very well for you. For me, much less so, b/c the titles are all very hard to come by and painfully expensive.
Agreed on reading!
I'm going to cancel more and more subscriptions -- and write more and more fiction -- in response to this.
I'm already entertaining my local area (via fiction and storytelling contests). Hoping more will come.
Another excellent piece, Ted. On this subject of subscriptions, I fully support what you and others do here on your blog (and other platforms). It seems to be the replacement for much of mainstream publishing.
But I would add this: As a subscriber I am woefully limited in how many writers/musicians I can afford to support. If I pay you a monthly fee (which I do), I then have to bypass another's blog because I can't afford to pay for more than those I currently subscribe to.
I'd love to hear your thoughts on a platform such as Flattr, where the user pays a flat monthly fee (determined by the user, herself), and that fee is divided between the writers/musicians she actually visits. A simple click on an icon (such as one here, on your blog), would represent a single "point". At the end of the month, the user's monthly payment would be evenly divided between those "points" that she clicked on. If she clicked on only ONE provider, that person would get ALL of her money that month, and so on.
This might mean less money from me to you, as the writer, but it would open up far more subscribers to you (at least, in theory). So if I decide to pay, say $20 per month, and I clicked on 50 items that month, each click would get 40 cents. If I had clicked on your site 8 times that month, you'd get $3.20. That's less than you're getting now, but if it doubled or tripled your readership, you'd come out ahead (plus, more people would be reading you).
I've long thought that micropayments were a good idea, and I still do. Would like to get your thoughts on that. Thanks again.
--john egenes
I just went to check out Flattr and it has been shut down. Too bad because I agree with you. I cant possibly afford to subscribe to all the substacks that Id like to read.
Great observations and thoughts. Reminds me of these thoughts that I shared with the Medium leadership many years ago (2016?) (and which sadly, seem to have been largely ignored).
https://medium.com/@johnyi275/ideas-for-medium-about-monetization-that-are-not-nearly-as-crazy-as-they-might-first-sound-458b153556ec
A MaxFun podcast network subscription works this way. The network is a co-op too. I don’t think the artists are able to live off that though. They still do other work and accept sponsorships. Flattr might ultimately turn into Spotify with most ppl getting cents bc the popular artists get most of the website hits. Maybe within it there could be smaller collectives to support so people can get a bigger cut. 🤔
I've never been tempted to subscribe to any streaming service, even at the older lower prices and certainly have zero interest with these jacked up prices. Most popular culture is garbage anyway. If I want to listen to music, I'll buy albums like the dinosaur I am.
I’m happy I held on to our CD’s and albums all these years, even though I didn’t always understand why I did it. Heck, I’ve even got a briefcase full of cassette tapes somewhere.
Cassettes are the new vinyl…
Cory Doctorow coined a much more colorful term for this very phenomenon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enshittification .
Enshittification is definitely a thing, but it is different.
End-game strategies are about making more from less. They are usually shitty, but should only be deployed after your business has reached market saturation.
Enshittification is a continual practice, and can be deployed at ANY time in order to increase content or product. But it actually works AGAINST you in the long and medium timeframe, so deploying it too soon weakens your chance of making it to end-game.
My wife and I decided to cut subscriptions in half when the time comes. This was their plan all along, offer the teaser rates for two to three years then wham, higher prices and lower quality content.
What’s crazy is Spotify rates were flat from 2011 through 2022, then bam! Multiple increases.
Where can creators thrive? Is it Patreon? Or will the subscription fatigue fully set in?
Yeah, I'm not sure of the next steps for indie creators. Would be a great post.
Agreed!
I've never subscribed to a subscription service, so I am immune to this. I stopped watching television entirely in December of 2016 when I thought I would see if I could find a nice Christmas program. I stumbled across The Simpsons and saw Krusty the Klown burst out of a manger, laughing. That was it for me. No more of this in my house. Ever again. I don't even have a TV set now and am far better off for it, as are my children, who read and actually do things rather than watching others pretend to do things.
I was recently at a painter friend’s house and as we sat in her backyard painting, her son was building a Halloween display that he thought up and her 5 year old grandson was drawing a multi page book about his morning. This is what should replace tv for the most part.
That's a great analysis. It also explains the contempt with which some streamers treat their loyal customer base - e.g. Amazon Prime Video showing ads to paying subscribers. I'd like to hear more about how you think this mindset is affecting book publishing, if you've a spare minute. :)
The ads offset the costs of licensing fees for the content they offer. Every video, every audio track = licensing fees, royalties, etc.
And they do offer a "no ads" option. Hulu's been doing that for years - since the 1st started, iirc.
Sure, I understand about licencing, but it tends to be either or - supported by ads OR subscription based. Are Hulu's ads for other shows? Or for general products and services? It just seems a bit greedy. They do it because they've locked in enough users. Though I see that Amazon are now offering a higher "no ads" version, but that's recent. And again, it's upselling a feature that should be standard (no ads). Anyway, what do I know - it just feels wrong.
Netflix now shows ads unless subscribers pay more. It costs over 20 $ per month to go ad-free. This just started at the beginning of last month.
Hulu shows minimal ads, *unless* a show is made by one of the Big Three networks. Then it's like watching via cable/over-the-air per the number of commercials + how frequently they're shown. True even though Disney owns Hulu now.
And yes, Hulu airs ads for other shows.
“Record labels now keep pushing old songs instead of developing new artists—and put most of their investment dollars into the rights to tunes from the distant past.”
My sister and I were just discussing this, vis-a-vis Spotify, during lunch.
Copyright has a great deal to do with that; also, back catalog is always mined, whether for reissues or broadcast. The major classical labels - DG, RCA, EMI, etc. - have always done that. It keeps costs down, and to be fair, there's a lot of fantastic music available for reissue. There are obvious Big Names that sell reissues, as well as relatively obscure perforners (by comparison) that people come across and that might draw them into listening to music they'd never have known about otherwise. (Composers, performers, repertoire.)
In the UK the terrestrial channels have online resources that make paying, beyond the licence fee, pointless.
All I kept thinking while reading this was “air travel”, the most perfect example of your theory.
Seems to be the strategy that professional sports and college football are playing. Fewer customers, but every single one of them a rabid fan willing to spend a ton of money on their team.
I appreciate your historical view of things Ted. Keep up the good work.
It's a good time to be in media!