A brief history of the fraught relationship between creators and tech

Photo by Ales Nesetril on Unsplash

There seem to confusion about how tech companies have been screwing over content creators since the 90s. So, here's a quick play by play through our fraught relationship.

1. A new hot tech company comes on the scene. They immediately turn to creators and publishers asking them to join their platform, saying they are "different" and are starting a "new paradigm" where content is king and creators rule. Amazon, Youtube, Facebook, and dozens of others did this at the beginning. They literally can't build without great content, and so they are desperate. Amazon literally built their business selling books and now they treat authors and publishers like garbage.

2. Creators and publishers start to build out their platform, telling their fans to come to the platform. The platform grows and at the beginning it's AWESOME. Money is flowing and creators and publishers are happy. This is the last time publishers and creators will be happy.

3. The platform hits scale, and sud…