Review: Chokepoint Capitalism: How Big Tech and Big Content Captured Creative Labor Markets and How We'll Win Them Back

Chokepoint Capitalism: How Big Tech and Big Content Captured Creative Labor Markets and How We'll Win Them Back by Rebecca Giblin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Written to show that in many different creative endeavors, the creative laborers are being exploited by the companies that funnel the art to the end consumers. While I suspect everyone has heard of monopolies – where consumers have but one source, this book focuses on the mirror image of that state of affairs, monopsony, where the sellers have limited choice in who to sell to that isn’t an end consumer. So for instance, you want to get people to listen to your music through streaming, but there’s only a small handful of streaming companies that people use, and they require very stringent and self-serving contracts. The book talks about many such markets, including Amazon’s e-book reader market, Apple and Google’s app stores, and Spotify for streaming music. This isn’t just a recent business innovation. The authors start with many descriptions of one-sided recording contracts with the popular musicians of the 50s and 60s. Once you see how one marketplace has been turned against the creator, you start seeing it everywhere. The authors use about 2/3 of the book to identify the problem and show it in various marketplaces, and offer some possible solutions in the last third, including legislative action. I sadly kept picturing Woodie Guthrie singing songs in support of…himself.

Disclosure: I won a copy of the arc of this book in a contest, I believe. This didn't influence my review.

View all my reviews