The entertainment industry is at a crossroads. With the merger of Discovery+ and HBO Max, the revelations out of the Simon & Schuster/Random House antitrust case, and the purging of stories, especially digital-only materials like streaming services, eBooks, and video games, the old institutions of entertainment appear to be closing ranks. Crypto is crashing the hot commodity of NFTs. Venture capitalists are less likely to spend money on ‘risky projects’ across industries. The downturn of the U.S. and global economies in a ‘recession-ish’, post-pandemic era has also fostered this moment where gatekeepers–all gatekeepers–are beginning to shut more and more of their gates.
What does this mean for artists? For those of us in the storytelling industry? What does this mean for audio drama and fiction podcasts? Obviously, a whole lot.