The Coming Death of Independent Podcasting

I'm reading Charles Perrow's 1972 classic Complex Organizations which discusses both intra- and inter-organisational structure. Stoller's description of the consolidation of podcasting strikes me as quite similar to the deconsolidation and reconsolidation of the music industry, in about 1955 and 1962-1973. The golden age of decentralised music production and distribution lasted less than a decade:

After the critical period from about 1956 to 1960, when tastes were unfrozen, competition was intense, and demand soared, consolidation appeared. The number of firms stabilized at about forty. New corporate entries appeared, such as MGM and Warner Brothers, sensing, one supposes, the opportunity that vastly expanding sales indicated. Some independents grew large. The eight-firm concentration ratio also stabilized (though not yet the four-firm ratio). The market became sluggish, however, as the early stars died, were forced into retirement because of legal problems, or in the notable case of Elvis Presley, were drafted by an impinging environment. Near the end of this period the majors decided that the new sounds were not a fad and began to buy up the contracts of established artists and successfully picked and promoted new ones, notably The Beach Boys and Bob Dylan. A new generation (e.g., The Beatles) appeared from 1964 to 1969, and sales again soared.

But now the concentration ratios soared also. From 1962 to 1973, the four-firm ratio went from 25 to 51 percent; the eight-firm ratio from 46 to 81 percent, almost back to the pre-1955 levels. The number of different firms having hits declined from forty-six to only sixteen. Six of the eight giants were diversified conglomerates, some of which led in the earlier period; one was a new independent, the other a product of of mergers.

How did they do it? The major companies asserted “increasing central control over the creative process”352 through deliberate creation and extensive promotion of new groups, long-range contracts for groups, and reduced autonomy for producers. In addition, legal and illegal promotion costs (drug payola to disc jockeys, for example) rose in the competitive race and now exceeded the resources of small independents. Finally, the majors “have also moved to regain a controlling position in record distribution by buying chains of retail stores.”353 The diversity is still greater than it had been in the past, and may remain high, but it is ominous that the majors have all the segments covered. As an executive said, “Columbia Records will have a major entry into whatever new area is broached by the vagaries of public tastes.” But for a concentrated industry, the “vagaries of public tastes” are not economical; it is preferable to stabilize and consolidate them. This would be possible through further control over the creative process and marketing.

Charles Perrow, Complex organizations : a critical essay, 1972, pp. 186--187.

https://archive.org/details/complexorganizat00perr/page/186/...

https://www.worldcat.org/title/complex-organizations-a-criti...

Decentralisation is a frequently expressed goal of Web technologies, but so long as there is an available point of control, and a means to assert exclusive relationships or ownership, centralised control will reestablish itself, and the commons will again be enclosed.

Perrow's description in the next few paragraphs of the production side of music, and the various distribution of risks amongst headline performers, agents, labels, printing facilities, retail outlets, radio, and side musicians, seems to me to have direct correspondences to much of the consumer-facing (and business-services) Web-startup world.

Recommended reading.

(I've expanded somewhat on this comment, implicating as well Doc Searls: https://joindiaspora.com/posts/780b1c807dc50138887d002590d8e...)