Platform and Passion
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly !
Chance discovery of talent on multiple media platforms constitute fairy tales that keep users and scouts flocking to them. We have also grown up with stories of how people who follow their passion ultimately get discovered and shine like bright stars. Whether we see the cricketing talent emerging in Indian Premier League or music/dance stars born on hundreds of TV reality shows, the key message is that the current talent discovery platforms are performing an important function in the march of humanity. I still get goosebumps whenever I watch this sequence from Britain Got Talent of a Mobile Phone Salesman Paul Robert Potts who dreams of being an opera singer and eventually wins the contest.
To quote my favourite poet Kahlil Gibran on work-
And all work is empty save when there is love;
And what is it to work with love?
Of course, this is true of all work in world but is even more pronounced of what I would term as creative work and this newsletter would be an attempt to understand the interface between Platform and Passion.
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DTW
During the Week, Apple announced the new subscription service bundle called what-else-but Apple One. It is an offering combining Apple Music, Apple TV+, Apple Arcade and iCloud under one umbrella. What it accomplishes in extraordinary value for end-users but is also worrying trend of too much of concentration of power especially access to top-paying customers in one platform. We have seen that in previous newsletter about EPIC Games vs Google/Apple and how both the platforms are able to cut off access to all the developers and users of Epic Games ecosystem.
In an earlier newsletter , I have written about Japanese philosophy of Ikagai and it can provide an understanding of passion economy and platforms. Intersection of two circles of ‘What I am good at’ and ‘What I love Doing’ result in PASSION. Next circle about ‘What the World Needs’ can be loosely translated into Demand Aggregation and ‘What You Can be Paid for’ can be seen as Monetisation Strategy. So, Passion along with Demand Aggregation and Monetisation Strategy provided by platforms can really make it work !
I would like to examine the relationship of platform and the passion economy through three lenses- First- Discovery Conundrum ; Second-”Good Enough” is Good and Three-Rent Seeking by Platforms.
Platforms have been pathbreaking in helping us in discovery process for singers/chefs/writers/craft-persons /painters etc and all of us have an interesting story about finding our inspiration without even looking for it. For example, at Trice Community, residents in gated communities are glad to reach their favourite artists/cause directly and vice versa.
Of course, Trice started with connecting ethnic/regional cuisine via the neighbourhood home chefs and strike an emotional chord amongst the gated community residents. Various thought leaders have argued that the coming age would see influencers making a good living from their fans/subscribers. The passion economy proponents argue that the truly creative influencers would be able to monetise what they love doing and also do well. Platform like Milaap can help people connect with their favourite causes and lead to greater common good. I was impressed with a campaign called Single Teachers School (STS) in which Carnatic Musicians have come together to raise money for STS in Tamilnadu. Platforms like Substack on which this newsletter is also published allows writers/thought leaders to build an audience without depending on social media platform as an intermediary.
BUT now there is a growing concern that in the race for creating platform thickness , many ecosystems have added too-much-too-soon and perhaps have reduced the overall quality of the content. The idea that we have the most brilliant content on platforms is flawed and as usual mediocrity rules the roost. Reverting to the Apple One example, we could clearly see that the bundle is great on convenience but actually is a combination of second or even third tier products in their respective categories.
Third dimension is the realisation that perhaps platforms charge usurious rent for matchmaking and considerably reduce the power of art producers while giving an illusion of choice to consumers. A platform like Etsy which started off as an enabler for artists and is a global marketplace for unique and creative goods is now turning out to be distant vision of “a place where creativity lives and thrives because it’s powered by people”.
Few months back Etsy started automatically advertising the goods of creators on its platform and increased its take rate from 5% to an additional 15% . Many users found it “money grab”, ‘absolutely unfair” and felt it to be betrayal of their interests by Etsy.
To conclude, growing social consciousness is both a boon and bane for the passion economy. More users are interested in local/niche products & services and passion economy would be able to serve this efficiently.
OTW
Over the Weekend, I was moderator of Marketing Conclave organised by Maverick : The official Marketing & Strategy Club of IBS Hyderabad and it was absolutely fantastic. Among the many insights, I loved this gem from the panelists- Context, Community, Content and Connections are essential for brands, corporations and individuals alike. You can watch the recordings of Day 1 and Day 2 on the MaverickIBS YouTube Page.
Talking about Passion and Reason, Kahlil Gibran says in Prophet
“Your reason and your passion are the rudder and the sails of your seafaring soul.
For reason, ruling alone, is a force confining; and passion, unattended, is a flame that burns to its own destruction.
Therefore let your soul exalt your reason to the height of passion, that it may sing;
And let it direct your passion with reason, that your passion may live through its own daily resurrection, and like the phoenix rise above its own ashes.”
I Love You
Shailendra
I never felt of such a correlation exists between a platform and passion economy and how both shall be balanced for a greater good. A great read with valuable insights indeed. Thanks a ton Sir.
Another piece of full of knowledge and content from your pen sir, Good social initiative done by Milaap in the form of Single teachers school, in the pipeline model, P&G also doing a similar type of donation campaign through products by the slogan " padhega India tabhi to badhega India". Even before this pandemic, people are active on platforms like Star app to encourage their hobbies but this pandemic has given an opportunity to rethink on our hobbies and as a consequence, Instagram and Youtube is full of cooking, painting, and music videos. Even a few platforms are inviting people to play a virtual cricket and cards. On one side, this COVID-19 gives a lot of ill-effects whereas on another side provides an opportunity to know one-self better.