The API is the most radical redistribution of power in the history of creative work.

Think about what distribution has always required: production infrastructure, packaging, logistics, retail relationships, platform access, audience data, payment processing, rights administration. Dozens of companies. Dozens of toll booths. Dozens of relationships, each one extracting value and capturing data that should belong to the creator.

The API collapses that chain into a single call. With an API, the owner is the label, the distributor, the retailer, the licensing desk, the data owner, the relationship holder. Not metaphorically. Literally. The API is the distribution chain. Own it, and you own everything downstream of it.

But a chain does not collapse on its own. Someone has to absorb it.