All posts tagged: enshittification

Posted on Jun 5, 2025 at 06:03 by scott truitt

“We pay a fortune for such a poor experience.” That was one of the first problem statements I wrote in the early days of Sawtooth last year. It referred to the enshitification of Spotify and other social and streaming services. It still resonates today for unexpected reasons. Now it’s the proliferation of mindless AI-generated art, music, and writing. Nothing prepared me for how quickly this slop would invade these human spaces, how willing so many would be to welcome it, and how much it wou

Posted on Jan 2, 2025 at 09:06 by scott truitt

Enshitification was my favourite word last year, but I only recently realised that it is hiding deeper and darker truths about the concentration of wealth and power. Now that I see it, it’s everywhere, and I want you to see it, too. The idea behind enshitification is simple: as platforms gain users (aka customers and partners), the service, experience, and value they receive degrade while the costs of using the platform increase. That fact alone is awful and a reason to rebel. But there’s

Posted on Aug 22, 2024 at 11:59 by scott truitt

Cory Doctorow’s enshittification thesis describes how platforms exploit their markets by luring consumers (with low prices) and businesses (with mass adoption) into an inescapable trap. Once we’re hooked, they reduce their costs, increase ours, and extract all the profits. You may also know this playbook as “Privatise the profits. Socialise the costs.” Enshittification harms more than the people and companies using their services. We all pay the price. When Spotify gives away music for free o

Posted on Aug 15, 2024 at 08:13 by scott truitt

Spotify’s mission to reduce its royalty payments to music creators is widely known. But I’m seeing more music lovers realise the hypocrisy in raising prices while slashing their commitments to our favourite artists and flooding their service with cheaper content. Simply put, they want more money from us to pay less to artists so they can keep more for themselves. That’s their path to profitability. It’s also the precise definition of enshitification. Their moves are especially relevant with sp