The title of this post comes from co-blogger David Henderson’s beautiful 2001 book The Joy of Freedom: An Economist’s Odyssey. It is one of my favorite books; David captures the optimism of liberalism in a way few other authors can. Since David wrote the book, the world has entered the Digital Age. The proliferation of the Internet, cheap digital storage and transmission, and cloud computing has enabled amazing levels of creativity and entertainment to arise. In particular, the indie scene.
Indie (independent) artists are artists who are not tied to a particular movie studio, video game studio, or music label. Before the digital world, an artist would need a contract with a studio to be a viable artist. The studio handled a lot of the “backroom” elements of art: promotion, distribution, production, etc. For a cut of the artist’s revenue, the studio reduced costs for the artist. This system, however, was often rife with corruption with studios often imposing egregious terms, IP ownership, and other conditions that significantly weakened the artist’s ability to produce (see here in the section “Hating Capitalism, or Hating Specific Capitalists”). Furthermore, the studios tended to act like conspiring oligopolies: a small group of large firms who colluded to keep prices relatively high by reducing production. Consequently, the genres of art were limited to whatever the studios decided was “in” for that year. With some exceptions, radical forms of art were not promoted widely.
The digital era ushered in a new era of creative freedom. With the rise of digital content platforms like YouTube and later Spotify, artists could cut out the middleman. The websites would host, distribute, and (through increasingly sophisticated algorithms) advertise the art to prospective consumers. Furthermore, since the marginal cost of using these sites is virtually zero, indie artists could produce new music and distribute it rapidly. All sorts of new genres and nice music began to emerge: lo-fi, synthwave, atmospheric, new covers of classic hits, and so on. Indeed, my friend listens to a band that just uses various blunt instruments against various flat surfaces to produce their music. Is it niche? Yes. But it is his niche and thanks to liberal markets, he is able to enjoy it.
We see the same thing in video games. While the Big Three studios (Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft) continue to produce and promote their own games, they also have digital storefronts where indie developers can sell their games. Some studios, like Canada-based Sabotage Studio, have hit it big: their 2023 game Sea of Stars has sold over 6 million copies since it was released in August 2023. Sea of Stars is a retro-inspired JRPG; it’s a love letter to classics like Chrono Trigger. Other studios, like Finland-based Remedy Entertainment were able to break into the big leagues with their hit Alan Wake (and later Control). Alan Wake and Control are Lovecraft-inspired games that rely heavily on atmosphere to tell their stories. Games like these existed, but were fairly rare pre-digital. Now, indie games have their own sections on digital stores and their own game award ceremonies.
Liberal markets, not mercantilism or central planning, created digitization. The market process broke down the barriers (the costs) preventing niches from developing. Contrary to the “market failure” story, these barriers to entry were the very thing that sowed the downfall of the cartels. Creative entrepreneurs found a way around the barriers to entry by making things digital. Consequently, the market expanded, and folks like me can sit in Louisiana and listen to atmospheric music created by a South African musician through a digital streaming service that costs less than a CD.
The joy of freedom comes not just from finding elbow room from the raging presumptions of one’s “betters” (to paraphrase Thomas Sowell). It is the ability to be creative, to enjoy, to satisfy a niche. Do you want a heavy metal song about how awesome it is to be a dwarf? You can have it. A gender-bendered version of Stacy’s Mom called Stacy’s Dad? Friend, do I have news for you. Freedom is the freedom to be you. Markets promote that freedom.
