D.I.Y.

Big Tech Is Hurting Professional Creators and Why It Matters [Op-Ed]

1In this op-ed, Chris Castle highlights a recent piece from musician and artist rights advocate Miranda Mullholland on how the pervasive algorithm based music culture is detrimental to artists and the creative process in general.

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Guest post by Chris Castle of Music Technology Policy

If you’ve ever been in a job interview for coders, you’ll understand when I tell you that it’s like a cross between the beginning of 2001: A Space Odyssey and the hacking-on-shots employment interview scene in The Social Network that is a crude version of Socrates assaying for gold in your veins if Plato were Don Julio.

Whichever simile you prefer, one thing is clear:  hackers value skills.  So when Big Tech and the Silicon Valley shilleries take shots at professional musicians and other creators for being “elites”, it’s actually quite comical.  Not to mention hypocritical.

Miranda Mulholland is one of the most articulate advocates for artist rights.  Her talk at the Economic Club of Canada is among the top essays on the economic realities of being a professional artist in the post-Google creative apocalypse.  In particular, Miranda tells the story of the independent “niche” artist who lacks the big advances from major labels because she creates outside of the Katy Perry-Coldplay-Rhianna style lock.

In her recent must-read post, Digital Revolution Fosters More Hurried, Less Skillful Creative Process Miranda points out the important negative effect of the algorithms that surround us (reminiscent of Cathy O’Neil’s groundbreaking Weapons of Math Destruction) and how an algorithmic life is antithetical to creativity and how creativity is the antidote to the algorithmic life.

It’s unfortunate that Google has actually attacked her in some twisted logic suggesting that supporting professional creators is somehow elitist.  Given Google’s own vaunted personnel practices (for which it is currently being sued), and the smarter-than-thou hacker culture, you would have thought Google would embrace a call for professionalism among creators especially one from a professional creator who somehow manages to make a living in the current algorithmically compromised environment.

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3 Comments

  1. Thanks for drawing more attention to Miranda’s great piece. I really loved this: “Creating art is the use of skepticism for what’s come before, and the application of curiosity, which leads to the imagination arriving at something utterly new, through skill. In an increasingly hurried world, it’s important to use long-term thinking. Governments, funders, publishers and labels need to remember that most artists need time to develop, grow and realize their visions.”
    Artists (and scientists I should add) employ skepticism and curiosity to better understand our environment, and to give us tools to shape our shared future in more informed ways. And their very existence testifies to the importance of a singular idea. This is something to be both treasured and cultivated. Our world is impoverished when we fail to sustain the arts & sciences. We–the members of the public, are the beneficiaries when we sustain individual greatness and artistry. We don’t just owe it to artists to give them the means to capture their potential–we owe it to ourselves. So be selfish—and support policies that let artists find their voices. Makes for a much better human chorus.

  2. Nobody is stopping anyone from being creative and taking their time. Take all the time you need. Just know, the world waits for no one. Never has! Stop blaming companies for the inability for an individual to prevail. Evolve or die, period! While I understand the vantage point clearly as a creator myself, it makes total since, but matters not. Never has. If the people didn’t consume the crap, no company could do anything to “hurt” artists. The people decide. I’m sure mom and pop restaurants and chefs got clobbered by fast food joints, are you fighting for them? No, probably not, because you probably don’t give a shit since it’s outside of your wheelhouse. Same here, no one outside of your wheelhouse gives a shit, they’ve got their own problems that occupy their measly 24 hours a day just like you. The artists who will “beat the system” or the “bots” or the “mega corps” will, and the rest will…well you know. Same old shit. It’s survival of the fittest, step outside the matrix and be brave enough to forge your own path. Otherwise, it’s a wrap for you. Nobody’s waiting for you to come up with a masterpiece but they’ll damn sure take it if it arrives. People consume what’s available. The good news is, one thing for sure, they will consume. So create, stfu, deliver, rinse, wash, repeat. Shit!

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