Artisanal social networks, beat interactivity, 2D bar codes, and the usual suspects
July 24, 2020 Edition
Hi everyone, and a very happy Friday to the Trilliuminati.
“There’s a nice little pasture two miles down the road that’s open for lunch.”
Source: New Yorker (July 27, 2020 Issue)
Social networks in miniature, beat battles, and new creator worlds
Over the past few months, much of my research (along with illustrious Reader RD) has focused on independent content creators of all shapes and sizes. It’s led to some weird corners of the internet (and the startup world). It’s also been an interesting way to see how content creation and consumption on the internet is evolving.
One theme that’s come up repeatedly is the value of direct connection between creator and consumer. Consumer research suggests that—beyond the usual suspects of the mass-market entertainment realm—many individuals are having deeper and longer relationships with independent, niche content creators. This can take the form of subscribing to a favorite guitarist’s YouTube channel, becoming a patron of a graphic artist, paying for a specialty online course, or even attending a fitness instructor’s Zoom workout class. In some cases, these are financial relationships where consumers are directly compensating creators for content production or expertise; in others, they’re more about an exchange of attention for content.
We moved from the dominant “brand/advertiser”-focused economy on the internet to the influencer economy (really a derivative of the brand/ads economy, as corporations leveraged individuals with clout to promote their wares) to an emerging creator economy (or, as mentioned in weeks past, what Li Jin calls the “passion economy,” though that is perhaps more suggestive of an X-rated industry in the San Fernando Valley). In the influencer economy, the size of one’s fanbase—as measured by likes and follows—matters tremendously. In creator economy research, multiple participants have explicitly told us that they are not interested in these sorts of “vanity metrics,” and prefer to focus instead on real human connection with their fans.
This might sound like a naïve fiction, but it feels less so when you realize that consumers are willing to pay for human connection and expertise, and often at a level that obviates the need for ad-based monetization (which, itself, requires significant audience size). And, as someone who, in the 2010s, heard multiple CMOs of large brands privately state their need to “buy likes and follows” on Facebook—for as little money as possible and “even if they were coming from Thai teenagers”—I find it an eminently reasonable perspective. As Gen Z becomes an increasingly large component of the consumer base, their self-professed identity as the “authenticity” generation portends a reinforcement of the trend towards direct connection between creator and fan. If you’re feeling optimistic about Gen Z, good for you. Just remember that their attention span is widely reported to be 8s.
If one of the promises of the internet was a home for every conceivable type of fringe community (good or bad), it seems to be increasingly manifested in these multi-directional relationships between creators and their communities (and peer-to-peer within these fan groups). For many years in the pre- and early Facebook era, communities were commonly organized around topics: a sports team fan community, or a BMW enthusiasts site, or a bachata lovers forum (@Reader WSG). Those still exist, to be sure. But, one can easily find more communities formed around the organizing principle of shared affinity for a given creator, reminiscent of artist fan clubs.
Creators, meanwhile, are increasingly referencing their desire to produce high-quality, unadulterated content for smaller but passionate communities of true fans. We’ve talked about Kevin Kelly’s “1,000 true fans” thesis—the idea that internet creators are able to make a sustainable living with a small number of fans who pay for their work—and, while I still think that argument is unrealistic in many cases, I generally buy the underlying thesis. Even Substack itself appeals to many professional writers—definitely excluding your humble amateur narrator—because it offers a promise of knowing one’s audience and cultivating direct, recurring connection over time. Patreon was built on a similar pretense: direct membership connection between patron and artist. Ben Thompson, the solo tech blogger whose Stratechery has become wildly successful and launched a thousand clones, demonstrated a successful paid subscriber model to many readers. In his view, his readers pay him not for any one piece of content, nor even his content in the aggregate, but rather the expectation of a sustained and continued relationship with the author/podcaster/Milwaukee Bucks fan.
I’ve been interested to hear many creators say that direct connection with individual audience members, whom they know by name, is what drives them to keep producing content. Certainly, the ability to make money from real people, without being intermediated by a platform or an advertiser or an algorithm, is enticing. But, I’m inclined to believe it’s not just an “if it don’t make dollars, it don’t make sense” worldview.
In recent weeks, I’ve been fascinated to find many creators who have built mini-social networks as perks for their fans. These can take the form of a private Discord server where fans of the same creator hang out, or a private Slack channel, or any number of other closed groups, whether on Whatsapp, Facebook, or Google+ (just kidding). Access is often granted in exchange for paid membership to the creator’s channel, wherever it may live (often Patreon), or simply for subscription (YouTube, etc). Startups like Geneva and Circle represent a growing wave of companies whose goal is to provide infrastructure for membership communities. For more on this theme, I recommend Toby Shorin’s recent article on the rise of paid online communities.
If you visit these communities, you’ll find that they’re often relatively vanilla, with different threads for a range of standard topics like gaming, sports, movies, music, and so forth. As one hobbyist podcaster with a small but rabid community of around 500 subscribers said to me: his fans talk about pretty much everything in his branded Slack channel, often without mentioning the content that ostensibly brought them together. In essence, the only thing that distinguishes these mini-social networks is the implicit knowledge that everyone in them has been granted access because they like the same creator. On some level, I suppose this makes them religious institutions (rimshot!)
I’ve been surprised by the constant level of engagement in these groups, and the myriad ways that content creators are connecting with their communities. Of course, they’re often active participants in the pseudo-messageboards they’ve created. More interestingly, though, they’re finding ways to break the fourth wall. One great example is rap producer Kenny Beats (Greenwich’s finest), whom you may recognize from the seemingly ubiquitous “Whoa Kenny” tag that starts all of his songs. Beats (why not) launched a YouTube show called The Cave in 2018 and quickly built a subscriber base of 500k+. The show consists of 8-12min episodes wherein an artist shows up at Beats’ studio (I’m committed to this), tells him what kind of vibe they’re in, and then watches as Beats cooks up a beat from scratch. The guest artist then freestyles over said beat, accepts prodigious quantities of praise, and departs. It’s fun, a good way to discover new artists, and largely responsible for preserving my sanity on sleepless flights to Singapore last year. For the record, Beats was also part of YouTube’s Foundry Artist Development program.
When shelter-in-place began, Beats could no longer receive guests inside The Cave (s/o to Plato). So, he did what any good entrepreneur would do, and pivoted. In the past several months, he’s begun hosting near-daily livestreams on Twitch. Sometimes, he holds court. Or, he’ll make a beat from scratch while streaming. Perhaps most compellingly, he’s started to do livestreamed beat competitions, where he’ll post a sound sample for his audience to download, give them two hours to produce a full beat and submit it to him, and then review the entries live while his Twitch live chat reacts in real-time. Often, he’ll be joined remotely by a guest artist, and the two will—in split-screen—have a good laugh at the expense of thousands of ambitious teen beatmakers. Check out this session where Beats was joined by His Majesty, Timbaland; despite Timbo’s near-catatonic state, it’s still rather enjoyable, and a good example of an artist who is using technology to deepen his interactions with his fans. For what it’s worth, Twitch seems to be doubling down on music content, having recently announced that it signed its first official music streaming partner (Rolling Stone).
Early in Trillium’s life, I mentioned Google’s AI Experiments site, and specifically nascent work around a video “interplay” mode where a consumer can interact with a piece of content: for instance, writing Japanese characters alongside an instructional video. As these experiments become more mainstream, I’ll be interested to watch how creators integrate these next-level paradigms into their work, and whether there’s a subsequent impact on how much consumers are willing to pay for this content. If you have interesting examples of creators that you’ve seen interacting with their fans in novel ways, let me know!
Boomerang: stories from weeks past
Tok’kin ‘bout a revolution: In what is perhaps an ominous sign for TikTok’s future in the UK, the company has reportedly halted talks on its London HQ (The Guardian). ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, cited the “wider geopolitical context” and specifically referenced the UK government’s recent Huawei-related actions as evidence of increasing hostility towards Chinese companies. It will be interesting to see which set of commercial and political priorities wins out here, particularly as TikTok bans continue to be a flavor of the month.
In other Tok-related news, the US House of Representatives has indeed voted to ban TikTok on federal devices (Politico). The company has also increased its DC lobbying spend and presence (South China Morning Post), pledged to add 10,000 jobs in the U.S. in the next three years (Axios), and announced a new $200M fund for creators in the U.S. (Tech Crunch). Not bad! Simultaneously, TikTok is fighting on new fronts as the Pakistani and Australian governments have begun similar investigations into data security (South China Morning Post).
In slightly less political Tok news, Rolling Stone has an interesting story on how TikTok has continued to break hit songs for the music industry, but without successfully breaking individual stars. TikTok is widely lauded for its brilliant home-feed algorithm, which seems designed to shine light on otherwise unseen but appealing content. The positive here is that it’s possible for amateur creators (or songs) to “blow up” on TikTok; the negative is that the algorithm is fickle, and that popularity is hardly guaranteed to sustain. I call this TikTok Roulette.
She doesn’t even go here: I enjoyed reading Zoe Schiffer and Megan Farokhmanesh’s “Safe Space: Silicon Valley, Clubhouse, and the cult of VC victimhood.” (Verge) I won’t spoil their well-written story about the app—as a refresher, it recently raised $12M at a $100M valuation while still in beta—except to say that it probably won’t make you feel especially warm and fuzzy towards some of the investor set. This piece does a good job of summarizing the unamusing, unpleasant, and unnecessary “war” between titans of the tech world and a media establishment that they perceive to be attacking their portfolio companies without reason. I find the whole thing rather exhausting.
It’s the little things: Not exactly setting the world on fire over here, but I just wanted to mention how much I enjoy Spotify’s usage of 2D “Spotify codes” (Tech Crunch) as the entry-point for the service’s new “Group Session.” Essentially, if you want to co-DJ with someone, you simply pull up your Spotify code and ask them to scan it with the “camera search” function in their Spotify app. Presto: you’re now co-managing a song queue. I tried the feature out this weekend, and was impressed by how seamlessly the whole thing works. Chinese apps have really set the gold standard for innovative uses of 2D bar codes to drive app actions: typically experience discovery, authentication, or deep-linked navigation to a particular destination. For whatever reason, most Western audiences can’t be bothered when it comes to QR codes. Perhaps Spotify’s instantiation will inspire others to experiment…
Speaking of Asian inspiration: I’ve written in the past about another China-inspired technology trend: mini or micro-apps built within dominant super-app platforms like WeChat. Google Pay has evolved in this direction, as has Snap. The latter recently announced its Minis program and has now shared that four of the seven initial Minis are live (Tech Crunch): Headspace, Flashcards, Prediction Master (?), and Let’s Do It (???). The theory is that 3rd party developed experiences will deepen engagement and time spent within the macro app container. However, the risk is that users don’t see the point of engaging in ancillary activities when they’ve come to an app for a specific goal (like connecting with their friends), and thus find the product’s value proposition somewhat diluted.
Ugh: Roblox has announced that they’re launching a new feature called “Party Place” (Tech Crunch). Guess what it is?! A private, virtual, dedicated place for users to hang out and…party. It’s not for me.
Kiss the ring: Update on the Whatsapp Pay-suspended-in-Brazil saga. Apparently, things are looking rosy again (Reuters), with Brazil’s central bank director stating that, “We will allow it, no problem…as long as all rules are respected.” Below is roughly how I envision the Brazil central bank’s most recent meeting with Whatsapp:
For your ears only
Last week, guitarist Jack Rose graced this section of the Trillium. I got a lot of positive responses to Rose’s playing—because you all have excellent taste—so am going to double down on the American Primitive guitar trend. This week, I’ve been re-listening to John Fahey, arguably the progenitor of this particular school of guitar music. Fahey lived a complicated life, and was truly an original instrumentalist. Many of his recordings blend blues, American folk music, classical music, Eastern scales & melodies, and more. His guitar playing is perhaps the closest thing to flamenco guitar that we have in North America. He also started the Takoma record label, which provided a platform for many other incredible musicians (including Leo Kottke). Perhaps predictably, Fahey’s artistic brilliance was accompanied by alcoholism and multiple ruined marriages (three). If tortured genius is your thing, take a listen to the KCRW Lost Notes podcast episode about Fahey. If you’re feeling less complicated, check out his performance of “Red Pony” in 1969:
See you all next week.
N
P.S. This was the #NoJio week…did you ever think it would happen? We’ll be okay…probably.