Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #audiblegate
Most recents (7)
Amazon is a perfect #enshittification parable - platforms subsidize end users until they're locked in, then make life good for business customers at users' expense, until *they're* locked in, then claw back all the value they can, leaving just enough to keep the lock-in going.
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If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
pluralistic.net/2023/06/14/fly…
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pluralistic.net/2023/06/14/fly…
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In a new report for @SOMO, @margaridasilva2 describes how the end-stage enshittification of Amazon is playing out in the #EU, with Amazon repeating its US playbook.
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1. In light of the #Audible price cuts, I wrote an #openletter to #CEO @BobCarrigan @audible_com @acx_com on behalf of all of the #indieauthors who are trying to create #audiobooks in an environment where big tech wants our content & the lions share of royalties. #audiblegate 🧵
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In Bezos's original plan, the company called "Amazon" was called "Relentless," due to its ambition to be "Earth's most customer-centric company." Today, Amazon is an enshittified endless scroll of paid results, where winning depends on ad budgets, not quality. 1/
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
pluralistic.net/2022/11/28/ens… 2/
pluralistic.net/2022/11/28/ens… 2/
Writing in Jeff Bezos's newspaper the @WashingtonPost, veteran tech reporter @geoffreyfowler reports on the state of his boss's "relentless" commitment to customer service. The state is grim.
washingtonpost.com/technology/int… 3/
washingtonpost.com/technology/int… 3/
Chances are you buy your audiobooks on @audible_com, Amazon's monopoly, with a 90+% share in many genres. But my books aren't there. I explain why I forego most of the market in a chapter in "Chokepoint Capitalism," my forthcoming book, co-authored with @rgibli. 1/
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
pluralistic.net/2022/09/07/aud…
Audible is a classic "chokepoint capitalism" story. 2/
pluralistic.net/2022/09/07/aud…
Audible is a classic "chokepoint capitalism" story. 2/
It's a company that corralled an audience in a walled garden, and uses that control to demand greater and greater concessions from the creators who want to reach them, eventually abandoning all pretense of fairness and literally stealing from creators. 3/
My next book is *Chokepoint Capitalism*, co-written with @rgibli: it's an action-oriented look at how tech and entertainment monopolies steal creators' incomes, with detailed, shovel-ready plans to unrig creative labor markets and pay artists:
beacon.org/Chokepoint-Cap… 1/
beacon.org/Chokepoint-Cap… 1/
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
pluralistic.net/2022/08/17/cho… 2/
pluralistic.net/2022/08/17/cho… 2/
Ironically, the very phenomenon this book describes - "chokepoint capitalism" - is endemic to book publishing, and in audiobook publishing, it's in its terminal phase. 3/
I *love* audiobooks. When I was a high-school-aged page at a public library in the 1980s, I would pass endless hours shelving and repairing books while listening to "books on tape" from the library's collection. 1/
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
pluralistic.net/2022/07/25/can… 2/
pluralistic.net/2022/07/25/can… 2/
By the time iTunes came along, I'd amassed a huge collection of cassette and CD audiobooks and I painstakingly ripped them to my collection.
Then came @audible_com, and I was in heaven - all the audiobooks, none of the hassle of ripping CDs. 3/
Then came @audible_com, and I was in heaven - all the audiobooks, none of the hassle of ripping CDs. 3/
Hello Audible subscribers and audiobook listeners out there!
Audiobooks [AB] are a really handy way to absorb a book without sitting down to read. I, for one, would be lost without them.
But... there is an unfortunate truth about Audible which is virtually unknown.
THREAD
Audiobooks [AB] are a really handy way to absorb a book without sitting down to read. I, for one, would be lost without them.
But... there is an unfortunate truth about Audible which is virtually unknown.
THREAD
Presenting: Audible-gate.
This controversy revolves around Audible's shady practices, which had included a bizarre returns policy, where the consumer could return their AB whenever they pleased, and the PRODUCER shouldered the cost.
But that's not even the worst of it...
This controversy revolves around Audible's shady practices, which had included a bizarre returns policy, where the consumer could return their AB whenever they pleased, and the PRODUCER shouldered the cost.
But that's not even the worst of it...
Though their returns policy have since been improved - but not fixed - when you dig down into the nitty-gritty of how royalties are calculated for your AB, things become even more depressing.
