thewallstreetjournal. monday, july 31,2017…online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/print/... ·...
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THEWALL STREET JOURNAL. Monday, July 31, 2017 | A11
LIFE&ARTS
IN ANCIENT TIMES, when read-ers bought actual books in out-posts known as stores, one alwayshad to be a little skeptical of thetitles stacked on tables by thefront door.
Some were the newest and mostpopular reads. Others were therebecause publishers had made dealswith the biggest retailers to puttheir books front and center, grab-bing the attention of browserswho weren’t sure what theywanted.
In the on-demand entertainmentworld, where companies that be-gan as neutral distribution plat-forms have become multi-headedmedia giants, we need a similardose of skepticism when we walkin the digital front door.
The first time you use Spotifyor Netflix, the experience is as-tounding. Want to drive cross-country to early ’90s hip-hop thatreminds you of middle-schooldances? Feeling blue and want tobury your sorrows in old episodesof “Cheers?” They’re just a searchand a click away. (All examples arehypothetical, of course, based onpeople with lower-brow taste thanmine.)
After a while, though, you don’talways know what you want to lis-ten to or watch when you log on.That’s where the content high-lighted by these streaming ser-vices starts to matter and the be-hind-the-scenes deals they strikemay influence your choices.
Such deals have given rise to adebate about “fake artists on Spo-tify” reported earlier on the web-site Music Business Worldwide.The artists aren’t “fake,” butrather real, low-profile individualswho are commissioned to createcertain types of popular music andsometimes use pseudonyms. Theirmusic, all instrumental, fills mas-sively popular playlists with titlessuch as “Sleep,” “Peaceful Piano”and “Yoga and Meditation.”
As anyone who has used Spotifyknows, popular playlists are oftenfeatured when you open the app,above recommendations based onwhat you’ve listened to.
So what’s the problem? Reportsin the New York Times and else-where suggest that Spotify mayhave special deals with so-called“fake artists,” paying them lessthan the standard share of its rev-enue that goes to Arcade Fire orBeyonce for each play.
Thus, Spotify might prefer thatyou listen to these tracks ratherthan others. Listen to whateveryou want, in other words, butmight we suggest these appetizingoptions that carry a better profitmargin for us?
A Spotify spokesman says,“We have never programmed aplaylist due to cost. Playlists areprogrammed based on how eachtrack performs and connects withlisteners.”
Spotify isn’t the only digitalpowerhouse with reasons to steerusers to certain content.
Last time I opened Netflix, I hadto scroll down two screens to findmy list of the programming I hadindicated I wanted to watch, skip-ping past seemingly every recentseries, movie and stand-up specialNetflix has made, including“Ozark” and “Glow.”
The more that people watch Net-flix originals, of course, the more thecompany can control its own destiny
rather than engaging in sometimes-difficult negotiations to buy contentfrom other studios and networks. ANetflix spokesman declined to com-ment. (Don’t worry, I scrolled all theway down to find that episode of“Star Trek: The Next Generation”I’ve been jonesing to rewatch).
Nothing ever stopped us fromcombing a bookstore for an ob-scure poetry anthology and noth-ing is stopping us today fromclicking, searching or setting theDVR to record exactly what we
want to hear or watch, regardlessof what’s presented to us.
But humans are fundamentallylazy, as illustrated by the sky-highratings for all those unfunny sit-coms that used to air between“Friends and “Seinfeld.” Whensomething that looks reasonablyappealing is presented to us, wemay not bother to search for some-thing else or wonder why it has themarquee spot on the home page.
You probably don’t care about“fake artists” on Spotify for the
same reason other artists and re-cord labels do: Because they worrythey’ll make less money.
But just as it’s important toknow who owns your favoritenewspaper or who contributesmoney to your elected officials,you should care about what Spo-tify and other streaming serviceswould like you to hear or watch.Because it may be the songs andvideos that make them moremoney, not the ones you’re mostlikely to enjoy.
ANALYSIS
WhoDecidesWhat YouWant?Streaming services such as Netflix and Spotify push music and movies they helped create
BY BEN FRITZ
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FILM REVIEW | By Joe Morgenstern
COLD REALITIES OFGLOBAL WARMING
CONSIDERING the potential forincandescent polemics, “An Incon-venient Sequel: Truth to Power” isrelatively restrained. Al Gore para-phrases Mike Tyson’s deathlessmaxim that “everyone has a planuntil they get punched in themouth.” That’s by way of notinghow the political climate haschanged with the rise of DonaldTrump, who had previously re-ferred to climate change as a hoaxand called for Mr. Gore’s NobelPeace Prize to be rescinded. Yetthe film doesn’t dwell on theTrump administration’s hostilityto climate science, and, because ofthe production’s release date, itincludes only an end-title mentionof last month’s announcementthat the U.S. would withdraw fromthe Paris climate accords. Rather,the emphasis is on the intensify-ing impact of global warmingcaused by human activity, onheartening signs of progress in re-newable energy, and on the needfor sustaining hope that brighterdays will come.
Eleven years after “An Inconve-nient Truth” Mr. Gore remains aprodigy of hope, with energy thatseems endlessly renewable. Duringmuch of the intervening time hecontinued to travel the belea-guered globe with the slide showthat became the core content ofthe first film, though the cam-paign against carbon emissionssometimes seemed doomed. “If Isaid there weren’t times I consid-ered this a personal failure I’d belying,” he says at one point in thisnew documentary feature, whichwas directed by Bonni Cohen andJon Shenk.
At another he says: “Therecame a time for me when Ithought, wow, we could reallylose the struggle. We need to re-cruit more people.” The results ofthat recruiting effort providemany of the settings for “An In-convenient Sequel”—climate lead-ership training sessions where theformer vice president exhorts ea-ger recruits to action.
Please see FILM page A13
Some streaming services highlight content that they helped create, such as Netflix’s wrestling comedy, ‘Glow,’ below left, and the crime drama, ‘Ozark,’ below.
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Al Gore in ‘An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power,’ directed by Bonni Cohen and Jon Shenk
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