46 Distribute and Be Damned
change without external disruption. Blockchain technologies offer the
possibility of a truly decentralised micropayment system; however,
we are not there yet, and at the time of writing, encrypted currencies
such as Bitcoin – the main beneficiary of blockchain – operate more as
speculative commodities such as gold than authentic trading currencies
such as the dollar.
25
And yet, micropayments are possible, not through
completely decentralised payment networks for which blockchain offers
huge potential, but via the huge tech intermediaries of companies such
as Google, Amazon, Apple, and Facebook. Self-publishing via platforms
such as Kindle Direct Publishing and YouTube has allowed hundreds of
thousands, if not millions of individuals, to create their own works and
sell them directly to the public, with the tech companies operating as
payment processors.
The effects of this transformative publishing industry lie to one
side of the main scope of this book, which is to consider the effect of
big tech on journalism, but it is significant enough to deserve a short
detour. Because these new publishing industries, such as for e-books
and vlogging, are monopolised by the tech giants, so transparent information about the economics of these activities is hard to come by
and tends to be bundled with other financial information. According
to One Click Retail, Amazon’s e-book sales grew 6 per cent to $750
million in the USA in 2017, although that was only a fraction of the
growth in physical book sales at the site which rose 46 per cent to $3
billion during the same period.
26
Nonetheless, with revenues to authors up to 70 per cent on title sales, a considerably greater amount of
that $750 million made its way to individuals compared to traditional
publishing. While Amazon does not release statistics of its bestselling independent authors, Forbes has been keeping track of the highest
earning YouTubers since 2015, particularly Daniel Middleton who, as
gamer DanTDM, had a following of 17 million viewers and earned
$16.5 million in 2017.
27
The fact that gamers dominate half of the
top ten list – an activity traditionally dealt with poorly by mainstream
media – is illustrative of the dramatically changing demographic among
younger viewers especially; the fact that another gamer, PewDiePie,
does not dominate that list also gestures towards other aspects of the
transition from a particular type of (for want of a better word) professional media production to a more amateur aesthetic. PewDiePie,
or Felix Kjellberg, used racial slurs and anti-Semitic references on his
channel, which has led to a series of scandals – without denting his 61
million and rising audience.
YouTube and the Forbes list tend to focus on a particular aspect of
the digital entertainment market which is that it operates according
to a “winner-takes-all” approach to economics, whereby the best performers in a market are able to take the lion’s share of profits leaving
very little to remaining competitors. This is by no means restricted to
change without external disruption. Blockchain technologies offer the
possibility of a truly decentralised micropayment system; however,
we are not there yet, and at the time of writing, encrypted currencies
such as Bitcoin – the main beneficiary of blockchain – operate more as
speculative commodities such as gold than authentic trading currencies
such as the dollar.
25
And yet, micropayments are possible, not through
completely decentralised payment networks for which blockchain offers
huge potential, but via the huge tech intermediaries of companies such
as Google, Amazon, Apple, and Facebook. Self-publishing via platforms
such as Kindle Direct Publishing and YouTube has allowed hundreds of
thousands, if not millions of individuals, to create their own works and
sell them directly to the public, with the tech companies operating as
payment processors.
The effects of this transformative publishing industry lie to one
side of the main scope of this book, which is to consider the effect of
big tech on journalism, but it is significant enough to deserve a short
detour. Because these new publishing industries, such as for e-books
and vlogging, are monopolised by the tech giants, so transparent information about the economics of these activities is hard to come by
and tends to be bundled with other financial information. According
to One Click Retail, Amazon’s e-book sales grew 6 per cent to $750
million in the USA in 2017, although that was only a fraction of the
growth in physical book sales at the site which rose 46 per cent to $3
billion during the same period.
26
Nonetheless, with revenues to authors up to 70 per cent on title sales, a considerably greater amount of
that $750 million made its way to individuals compared to traditional
publishing. While Amazon does not release statistics of its bestselling independent authors, Forbes has been keeping track of the highest
earning YouTubers since 2015, particularly Daniel Middleton who, as
gamer DanTDM, had a following of 17 million viewers and earned
$16.5 million in 2017.
27
The fact that gamers dominate half of the
top ten list – an activity traditionally dealt with poorly by mainstream
media – is illustrative of the dramatically changing demographic among
younger viewers especially; the fact that another gamer, PewDiePie,
does not dominate that list also gestures towards other aspects of the
transition from a particular type of (for want of a better word) professional media production to a more amateur aesthetic. PewDiePie,
or Felix Kjellberg, used racial slurs and anti-Semitic references on his
channel, which has led to a series of scandals – without denting his 61
million and rising audience.
YouTube and the Forbes list tend to focus on a particular aspect of
the digital entertainment market which is that it operates according
to a “winner-takes-all” approach to economics, whereby the best performers in a market are able to take the lion’s share of profits leaving
very little to remaining competitors. This is by no means restricted to