In the world of punk music, there’s probably no greater insult than to be labeled a sellout. In 1980, the Dead Kennedys were assuredly not sellouts. Invited to the 1980 Bay Area Music Awards to play their indie hit, California Über Alles, the Kennedys did exactly what you would expect a punk bank opening for the likes of Eddie Money and Huey Lewis to do – they threw up a metaphorical middle finger and after the opening chords of California Über Alles, they began playing Pull My Strings. The song is a lighthearted insult to the music industry practice of payola and the artists who sell out to become stars.

The tech platforms that dominate the world today were once very punk – they were disruptive and had loyal followings. But not only did they sell out, in doing so, they’ve degraded the usefulness of the platforms and the only reason people stay is because there are few alternatives. There’s a name for this and David Powers joins the show to discuss how it applies to platforms from Uber to Amazon.

We discuss:
• The term coined by Cory Doctorow to describe this lifecycle
• The 4 steps of this lifecycle
• Examples including Uber, Reddit, Twitter, and Amazon
• Whether paid platforms are the solution
• How DRM affects authors
• How the gaming industry has fallen prey
• Whether OpenAI is already part of the lifecycle

Connect with David on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidjpowers2/

CX Riot Radio – https://open.spotify.com/show/3p4rE3csfzp7B579u3PG24

Music courtesy of Big Red Horse – https://bigredhorseband.com/

Brought to you by Happitu – https://happitu.com/

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