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Kickstarting a book to end enshittification, because Amazon will not carry it

pluralistic.net

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Re: Kickstarting a book to end enshittification, because Amazon will not carry it

#111

Post by 8note »

thfuran wrote: post #63
taeric wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you can show that authors are getting less money in this environment? And, despite me being able to trivially show that I paid less per book than any offered alternative on the table, with the exception of the library, you claim I'm getting a raw deal now? We can even add in performers and others doing the recording to this question. Obviously, I only have the numbers on what I paid out. If you actually have the o…

>And no, you can't just say, "they would have gotten a larger cut in the other marketplaces," as I am literally asserting that Audible is the largest marketplace because they grew it Ma Bell was the largest telecom because they grew the industry. That doesn't mean their actions once they had monopoly power in a large market were particularly beneficial to anyone but themselves. >Again, if you are worried that they wi…

Netflix has lots of competitors now, and exclusivity deals are everywhere, and product differentiators.

Netflix originals on netflix, HBO originals on max or whatever it's called now, marvel shows on Disney, etc

Re: Kickstarting a book to end enshittification, because Amazon will not carry it

#112

Post by 8note »

mtlynch wrote: post #71
taeric wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am curious why you don't think they aren't better than the alternatives? Are they amazing and beyond improvement? Of course not. But most of the alternatives are crap. This is basically the same as the sad affair of enterprise software. The vast majority of that industry is actively bad. Not just not good, but actively bad.

> I am curious why you don't think they aren't better than the alternatives? Are they amazing and beyond improvement? Of course not. But most of the alternatives are crap. Do you think the quality of the alternatives might be related to the fact that Amazon/Audible is strangling all competitors out of existence with their exclusivity agreements? Imagine if an audiobook competitor popped up that's a 10x better experie…

If apple extended itunes to sell audiobooks, they'd eat audible's lunch without problem. Any podcasting company could do it, because podcasts basically are audiobooks

(Also disclaimer, I work at Amazon but not at audible)

Re: Kickstarting a book to end enshittification, because Amazon will not carry it

#113

Post by taeric »

Snarwin wrote: post #110
taeric wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll gladly laugh and accept the jab that I'm a little too active in this thread. I don't know why this topic got me today, but it clearly did. That said, please educate me on where I'm giving a clear lack of understanding on how it works. I'm basically seeing a couple big name authors that are effectively telling me I'm a bad person for buying audio books from Audible. But, far as I can see, every alternative is com…

I don't think these authors intend for you to interpret their criticism of Audible's business practices as a statement about your moral character. One of their central points is that Audible's business practices have severely limited consumer choice in the audiobook market. You can't be held morally responsible for a choice that's been taken out of your hands.

May not be their intent, but at large declaiming something is bad and "enshitifying" the internet is a very transitive label?

And again, there is no evidence that audible is lessoning consumer choice? There is some evidence that they lesson producer practical choice. But even that is weak? With few exceptions, mostly audible produced works, I can find all of the books I care about elsewhere.

Re: Kickstarting a book to end enshittification, because Amazon will not carry it

#115

Post by freeAgent »

xavdid wrote: post #107

A slight quibble: > They require mandatory DRM for every book sold, locking those books forever to Amazon's monopoly platform. If you break up with Amazon, you have to throw away your entire audiobook library. While it's true that your purchases are tied to your Amazon account, they are not tied to your audible subscription (if you have one). That's a nice touch. Even better, the DRM is trivially easy to remove. Audi…

I can only assume that Audible’s weak DRM will be replaced as soon as they deem the audiobook market sufficiently captured.

Re: Kickstarting a book to end enshittification, because Amazon will not carry it

#118

Post by izzydata »

Jiro wrote: post #51
yjftsjthsd-h wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> and I'll roll my eyes very hard every time I read the word "enshittification" Why? It seems like a good description that accurately describes the behavior and is reasonably obvious on first reading.

It's a horrible name. It obviously implies that something is being made shitty, but it fails to say what or how. "Enshittification" could just as easily mean "the process by which your computer fan gets clogged with dust" or "the process by which rice loses vitamins when you cook it too much". It's like calling it "bad stuff" except with more profanity.

How would a word itself contain its own definition of what or how? If you take the word "corruption" which is similar you can see that is implies something is being made more corrupt, but it fails to say what or how.

I can't see how enshittification is any different. Enshittify, like corrupt needs to have a definition at some point.

Re: Kickstarting a book to end enshittification, because Amazon will not carry it

#119

Post by xavdid »

freeAgent wrote: post #115
xavdid wrote: post #107

A slight quibble: > They require mandatory DRM for every book sold, locking those books forever to Amazon's monopoly platform. If you break up with Amazon, you have to throw away your entire audiobook library. While it's true that your purchases are tied to your Amazon account, they are not tied to your audible subscription (if you have one). That's a nice touch. Even better, the DRM is trivially easy to remove. Audi…

I can only assume that Audible’s weak DRM will be replaced as soon as they deem the audiobook market sufficiently captured.

It's certainly possible, but it seems pretty captured already. I'm not sure how much of a blip it is for them.

Definitely a good reason to back up any audible purchases sooner rather than later (as as soon as you buy any future ones!)

Re: Kickstarting a book to end enshittification, because Amazon will not carry it

#120

Post by scurvy__dog »

CharlesW wrote: post #19
golemotron wrote: post #14

It's like Richard Stallman passed his baton to Cory.

Only Cory seems 1,000 more pragmatic. And although he's often a hypocrite¹ and I'll roll my eyes very hard every time I read the word "enshittification", I admire that his goal was to create a "shovel-ready" book with actionable advice and look forward to reading it. ¹ https://imgur.com/a/TAltXUf

> And although he's often a hypocrite¹

This is "POSSE" (Post Own Site, Share Everywhere) as explained in [1]:

> The "pluralistic" in my Pluralistic strategy is twofold. First, I practice "POSSE" (Post Own Site, Share Everywhere). That is, while my posts appear as threads on Twitter and Mastodon, and as articles on Medium and Tumblr, the permalinks for each post live on my own site, which I control.

I thought you were talking about this [2] but there is a very good reason that he explains here [3] or by listening to the audiobook (which can also be heard here on his podcast [4]).

[1]: https://pluralistic.net/2022/02/19/now-we-are-two/

[2]: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B5RWTPR7/

[3]: https://pluralistic.net/2022/07/25/can-you-hear-me-now/#acx-...

[4]: https://ia801507.us.archive.org/18/items/Cory_Doctorow_Podca...

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