A brief history of the fraught relationship between creators and tech

There seem to confusion about how tech companies have been screwing over content creators since the 90s. So, here’s a quick play by play through our fraught relationship.

1. A new hot tech company comes on the scene. They immediately turn to creators and publishers asking them to join their platform, saying they are “different” and are starting a “new paradigm” where content is king and creators rule. Amazon, Youtube, Facebook, and dozens of others did this at the beginning. They literally can’t build without great content, and so they are desperate. Amazon literally built their business selling books and now they treat authors and publishers like garbage.
2. Creators and publishers start to build out their platform, telling their fans to come to the platform. The platform grows and at the beginning it’s AWESOME. Money is flowing and creators and publishers are happy. This is the last time publishers and creators will be happy.
3. The platform hits scale, and suddenly the platforms don’t need those creators or publishers because the platform is now bigger than any one or two creators. Investors NOW want an ROI, when they had been happy to funnel money into an incinerator before this point.
4. Platforms throttle creators (Facebook) or cut their revenue share (Youtube) or cut their rates for affiliates (Amazon). Suddenly, those creators have a harder time reaching THEIR fans, the ones who literally, quite literally, built the platform in the first place. Yet, we’ve spent so much time building out THEIR platform that we have none of our own.

Creators suffer so tech companies can get rich. They make billions while we go out of business.

Screw them. I will never, ever, ever get tricked into helping a platform build their fanbase.

That’s why I am so into my own mailing list, and Kickstarter, because at least there you keep your customer files and they give you access to your own data. They are the ONLY tech company that hasn’t messed with creators in my entire memory of tech since the 90s. That is why I am so rabidly loyal to them. They haven’t even upped the percentage they take like Etsy or Patreon.

So, tech bros. Screw you. Learn history before you come at me telling me it’s going to be different this time with your platform.

You stole our audience, and then you charged us to reach them. You got rich, and we got a pittance. You would literally not exist without us, and frankly, you probably shouldn’t exist.

Never trust a tech company that wants you to build their platform. They will screw you over 99.9% of the time.

It seems great at first. It seems too good to be true, and that’s because it is.