@a0b872c9 You know, the whole "promise" of streaming was that it would generate payments that properly rewarded individual artists for exactly the amount of streams they generated (even if it was only one) but, instead, because they're often owned by Big Entertainment they funnel all the money back to Big Entertainment. The ultra wealthy will never let the rest of us be free or even get access to the money we're generating that they scoop up while burying us. 

In the case of streaming videos, Big Entertainment tried to break writers and actors then, when Big Entertainment finally had to acknowledge they need writers and settle, they started with "cost cutting" and taking their revenge on all the workers in the entertainment industry. They pretend it's about "share price" and so on but they're not cutting any massive CEOs salaries (and the CEO is likely doing this because the only thing he's interested in is making his bonus by providing the illusion of profitability).

My big hope is that we'll see a rise of independent production houses who actually care about movies (be they trashy ones or high art). We deserve better movies than Big Entertainment wants to give us. We deserve niche movies, strange movies, local movies, etc as well as "blockbusters." 

 @b92b6163 yes, indeed. the key is breaking the stranglehold that the big intermediaries - publishers, recording companies, studios - have on creativity.  as you say, we need lots of independents.... 

 @a0b872c9 There's a cycle that happens where Big Entertainment gets so out of touch with what's actually going on culturally that independents not only find profitable niches but start outselling Big Entertainment (Nirvana was kind of the apex of this and they set off a small label buying frenzy by Big Entertainment, in my experience but I'd suspect it's got even deeper roots). Big Entertainment has never not been unethical and exploitative (though there are still many smaller labels run by people who love music). As always in capitalism, the issues are around ownership and exploitation and it's only gotten worse as hedge fund bros have gotten into the music IP business.