What's Left, America?
 

I had a riveting discussion this evening with my fiance about the journalistic landscape in the post-mass media internet age.

A dear friend had suggested that I explore HuffPost as a publishing resource. While I understand The Huffington Post is an excellent outlet for public exposure, a brief survey of their content has left me to firmly contest their journalistic integrity, as they primarily publish fluff pieces with sensationalist click bait headlines. And since their acquisition by AOL, their adoption of Dr. Phil, Dr. Oz, and Jenny McCarthy-supported anti-vaxxer garbage and holistic chicanery, they've lost any remaining credibility. Furthermore, their grand-sweeping aggregation net steals all content great and small without compensating (or validating) their sources, so I'll personally have no part of it.

This sparked a rousing discussion of what reputable sources remain. And when she educated me as to the recent folding of one of the few last standing sources - Al Jazeera America, closing due to lack of American readership, I was devastated and appalled by the apathetically low standards of the average American reader - skimming for little more than headlines in the positive feedback loop that is their social media "newsfeed". We are self-sabotaging our opportunity for a rich and active discourse by scrolling through articles proclaiming that "you won't believe this optical illusion!". Illusion indeed.

Mass media's replacement by a personalized media echo chamber devoid of voices to challenge one's perceptions is an Orwellian construct - prisoners who serve as guards themselves to their own invisible incarceration, (as was so prophetically described in My Dinner With Andre). And the matter is only worsened by the fact that there are so few credible news sources left outside of their cell walls which could ever hope to set them free.

These are desperate times. All the more reason for me to be grateful to have found a woman of sharp mind like my fiance.

/rant

Back to the music.

The Rise of the Collective Market
 

http://i.imgur.com/DtFTD9ul.jpg

Over the course of the last decade, we have seen a significant transition of power – the stranglehold of the market loosening from the hand of the corporate gatekeepers as they are largely replaced by more efficient systems built by the citizens of the internet.

These markets crowd-source the knowledge of community members who are proficient in a particular field of interest, who develop databases, forums for discussion, and flat-hierarchal markets in which to distribute goods far more effectively than by previous corporate models.

For example; Abebooks and Alibris each do a magnificent job of empowering consumers and booksellers alike, by creating an easily navigable flat structure marketplace where bookshops large and small can offer their titles to a global community without any additional overhead. This creates a buyer’s market where millions of titles are available at impressively low prices.

http://i.imgur.com/ywOnAyrl.gif

Discogs is another successful user-supported market. The site’s users construct and maintain a detailed database and thriving marketplace of millions of music titles ranging from Billboard chart toppers to incredibly rare test pressings. By adhering to a core, (and greatly facilitated) organizational structure of data submission, the site is able to crowd-source a vast and well-organized database. The site also automates personal collection appraisals based on market history, right down to the condition of each item. The site even offers catalog submissions via UPC scanning to make library building a snap. And its marketplace is empowering for record sellers great and small as well as for music consumers the world over. Like other online markets, there are significant cycles of inflation, but regulation likewise occurs naturally.

http://i.imgur.com/8DmpSPe.png

Etsy offers a market for artisanal creative projects. And Audiogon is a community to help educate users about pro audio gear with both a forum and a trade-and-sell market of its own. For every need that arises, knowledgeable users in the community establish a market specializing in that service. This is a core tenant of the cooperative nature of the internet community.

http://i.imgur.com/7gJ4CqT.jpg

As with any eBusiness construct, several key advantages separate these ideal virtual markets from the antiquated corporate retail brick-and-mortar chain stores which came before them. Firstly, their operating overhead is minimal to non-existent, whereas physical stores must constantly grapple with expenses like construction, maintenance, electricity and heat, staffing expenses, and insurance. And the physical limitations of a building cripple a store front’s merchandise selection which is often restricted further by the distributors with which the corporation has aligned itself.

http://i.imgur.com/KezPh2yl.jpg

By stark contrast, online markets shed all of the restrictions of physical space. Most of these markets are user-supported so little staffing is required, and buyers can purchase any of millions of available products from other users anywhere in the world without corporate loyalty to a particular supplier.

These independent markets are far superior to their predecessors in every way, disseminating operating expenses and rendering the monopolistic behemoths obsolete and irrelevant. And as digital media rises to overtake the physical goods market, this obsolescence will only exponentially increase.

We are witnessing the end of the gatekeeper era. The Net has given rise to a new and better model of distribution – marketplaces which empower buyers and sellers alike. These markets, built upon fundamental automation structures and cooperative operation far more effectively serve the interests of the community.

As John Perry Barlow famously declared in his Declaration of Independence of Cyberspace to the governments of the world:

The century-long corporate dominance of our marketplaces is at its end. Together we have built something better which works for all of us.

We have won.

I know right? I told him he needs to write a book. I'd buy like 5 copies.

Everyone's encouragement is sincerely appreciated! At present I've compiled 16 of my unpublished articles and papers into a folder on Google Drive with the working title:

The Media Mind - Frustrated Blatherings of a Pretentious Knob (16 Curmudgeonly Essays)

The writings focus on my favorite topics - musico-cultural trends, the internet's impact on media economics, free culture (including copyleftism, open source, FSF, EFF, and their brethren), and piracy culture / Kopimist philosophy. I might also include the write up for my short film, 5'50" of Pop.

I'd greatly appreciate the community's input, particularly your thoughts on any articles I've published in the past which you'd deem book-worthy.

Thanks again everyone!

^if it's compiled and you provide links, I'd be all over that ****. I love your style.

Thanks, Ki! MB will be the first to know when it happens.

I'm Dancin' Like a Monkey.
 

WHAT AN OUTSTANDING DAY! I'd told my fiance that I was thinking about buying a record bin so that I could flip through my LPs record-store-style. Today her eagle-eye spotted this beer tub furniture piece on the side of the road - it has a metal lining EXACTLY wide enough for two rows of polybagged records!

I'll probably remove the lip at the top and paint it black to cover the less-than-perfect birch wood. But the beast is sturdy with an extra shelf at the bottom to hold even more!

My baby's thrifting skills are unmatched and she's made my birthday wish come true for FREE! For a gent with a meager income (and an expensive hobby), moments like these are real gems.

If anyone's interested in a flip-thru video of its contents, let me know.

http://i.imgur.com/0moKVgZl.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/POcAkmHl.jpg

Flip-through video, please! I'm so happy for you!

Thanks, mordwyr! (Much appreciated considering how much sh*t I gave you on the other thread). Also - digging the new avatar!

I'll see what I can do for a video tomorrow!

That looks awesome! I'm heading off to university soon so I'm currently going through the troubles of finding myself a new shelf my records, but after seeing that, I'm considering looking for something similar instead.