Sep 29, 2026 · 1 hr 4 min · 10 segments
Why does an independent artist still depend on a single intermediary? In this episode of Bitlemmas, we review Chokepoint Capitalism by Rebecca Giblin and Cory Doctorow and look at how buyer power…
They were trying to own too much of him.
Warner controlled release timing of his music and retained his master recordings.
The artist at the time, the artist formerly known as, uh, Prince, he carried the production risk, so he had to pay for things while making his music, while the label controlled the asset, everything he was producing.
Changing his name exposed a contract reaching beyond distribution, so he found a loophole.
So the symbol, which was his name, it was resistance, but it wasn't a structural exit.
When an intermediary owns the route, an intermediary here would be the label, it can reshape the creator themselves.
Now, the chokepoint hourglass.
It's, it's really two sides.
Two-- You could say the top part is and the bottom part are the creators and the, uh, audiences.
So on the top, you can imagine this as many creators, and they have their, uh, work and their rights and the risk.
They actually take a risk, which, um, many people don't know.
They often have to pay for their studio time, for instance.
And they're very atomized.
Oftentimes, they don't have any unions.
They don't have any collective bargaining capabilities.
Now, what's this waste in the middle of the hourglass? One or a few gatekeepers.
What do they control? Discovery, terms, and settlement.
So it represents a concentrated intermediary bottleneck.
For instance, something like Amazon or Audible, Spotify or Universal, Apple, Google for mobile software, and Live Nation and Ticketmaster for live performances.
And then the bottom, you can look at that as the audiences.
Where there's attention and purchases and relationships that are captured on this side of the gate.
So this represents millions of dispersed consumers, listeners, and readers who supply attention, subscription fees, and direct purchases.
But they have to deal with walled gardens, proprietary hardware, and DRM, digital rights management, which locks the consumers into a platform.
They were trying to own too much of him.
Warner controlled release timing of his music and retained his master recordings.
The artist at the time, the artist formerly known as, uh, Prince, he carried the production risk, so he had to pay for things while making his music, while the label controlled the asset, everything he was producing.
Changing his name exposed a contract reaching beyond distribution, so he found a loophole.
So the symbol, which was his name, it was resistance, but it wasn't a structural exit.
When an intermediary owns the route, an intermediary here would be the label, it can reshape the creator themselves.
Now, the chokepoint hourglass.
It's, it's really two sides.
Two-- You could say the top part is and the bottom part are the creators and the, uh, audiences.
So on the top, you can imagine this as many creators, and they have their, uh, work and their rights and the risk.
They actually take a risk, which, um, many people don't know.
They often have to pay for their studio time, for instance.
And they're very atomized.
Oftentimes, they don't have any unions.
They don't have any collective bargaining capabilities.
Now, what's this waste in the middle of the hourglass? One or a few gatekeepers.
What do they control? Discovery, terms, and settlement.
So it represents a concentrated intermediary bottleneck.
For instance, something like Amazon or Audible, Spotify or Universal, Apple, Google for mobile software, and Live Nation and Ticketmaster for live performances.
And then the bottom, you can look at that as the audiences.
Where there's attention and purchases and relationships that are captured on this side of the gate.
So this represents millions of dispersed consumers, listeners, and readers who supply attention, subscription fees, and direct purchases.
But they have to deal with walled gardens, proprietary hardware, and DRM, digital rights management, which locks the consumers into a platform.
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