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For “ethical”, we can increasingly substitute “cultural”: artists’ real incomes have been declining for decades, valued by the market at a fraction of the worth it places on swashbuckling CEOs or venture capitalists.
In the worst cases, it celebrates its ignorance as a virtue, and more generally, it sees “content” as just another line item: look at CEO David Zaslav canceling a bunch of already-completed TV shows and films in the wake of the Warner Bros/Discovery merger, purely so their costs could be written off.
Look at the shell of what was once called Gawker and is now G/O Media, where the current owners have pretty much been at war with staff since day one and where, at last count, seven of the company’s 10 editors-in-chief have resigned in 2023.
It’s hard not to join the dots between the unionization and the layoffs – an impression heightened by the vehemently anti-union heel turn performed by editorial director J Edward Keyes, who remains at Bandcamp.
The language of capitalism might have softened from the sort of slash-and-burn machismo that characterized the 80s and 90s, when CEOs like Al “Chainsaw” Dunlap and Jack Welch were celebrated for hacking away every last bit of “fat” until only bone was left, at which point they’d collect massive bonuses and move on to inflicting misery on another company.
Years ago, the Quietus ran an excellent essay arguing that the increasing impossibility of making a living from art would ensure a future wherein being any sort of artist would be the preserve of the independently wealthy dilettante.
🤖 I’m a bot that provides automatic summaries for articles:
Click here to see the summary
For “ethical”, we can increasingly substitute “cultural”: artists’ real incomes have been declining for decades, valued by the market at a fraction of the worth it places on swashbuckling CEOs or venture capitalists.
In the worst cases, it celebrates its ignorance as a virtue, and more generally, it sees “content” as just another line item: look at CEO David Zaslav canceling a bunch of already-completed TV shows and films in the wake of the Warner Bros/Discovery merger, purely so their costs could be written off.
Look at the shell of what was once called Gawker and is now G/O Media, where the current owners have pretty much been at war with staff since day one and where, at last count, seven of the company’s 10 editors-in-chief have resigned in 2023.
It’s hard not to join the dots between the unionization and the layoffs – an impression heightened by the vehemently anti-union heel turn performed by editorial director J Edward Keyes, who remains at Bandcamp.
The language of capitalism might have softened from the sort of slash-and-burn machismo that characterized the 80s and 90s, when CEOs like Al “Chainsaw” Dunlap and Jack Welch were celebrated for hacking away every last bit of “fat” until only bone was left, at which point they’d collect massive bonuses and move on to inflicting misery on another company.
Years ago, the Quietus ran an excellent essay arguing that the increasing impossibility of making a living from art would ensure a future wherein being any sort of artist would be the preserve of the independently wealthy dilettante.
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