For coal miners about a century ago, the company store was this idea that the entire town is owned by the coal mine: You can come work in the mine, and when you come to this town, you rent your house from the coal mine, you buy your food from a store supplied by the coal mine, and you are paid in what is called scrip, which only has value in the context of the coal mine. I do not want to co-opt the struggles of coal miners, but I think making stuff for the algorithm is the closest thing I’ve seen in entertainment. From the big corporate players to the other options at our disposal, I don’t think that any of them feel like a pathway for an artist in the way that existed 20, ten, or even five years ago.
There used to be a very clear-cut middle-class job that I saw bubble up in the petri dish. They were at internet-supported platforms putting out videos where you could get hired to write or act, like CollegeHumor, Above Average, Onion News Network, and Funny or Die. I got hired at Onion News Network. It was one of my very first jobs. They didn’t pay great but, between that and cobbling together freelance things when they came along, I started finding ways to live.
I was there as things changed.
