Good morning [%first_name |Dear Reader%],

There are many structures, frameworks, and tricks you can use in storytelling. That’s the science that goes behind it all, eventually producing a story that (hopefully) inspires and informs audiences. 

But the science is not what today’s edition of Inciting Incident is about. No. 

Today, we’ll look at the art of storytelling. That nebulous grey area where rules are broken and/or remade. Either magic happens, or spectacular failure. But that’s the risk that comes with the territory, when storytellers decide to harness their creativity, take risks, and try to reinvent themselves to best suit changing times. 

The simplest structure you can think of when it comes to storytelling is this triangle, with the three aspects all feeding into each other. 

But while there are scientific ways for storytellers to understand the audience and the story, what about themselves? What goes on inside each storyteller’s heart is unique, as is how they bring each of these three aspects together. That’s the art in the equation. 

Well, over the past few weeks, two companies that have become dominant forces primarily due to their power to tell stories—Netflix and Spotify (songs are stories too)—have been trying something new. 

They are the ones that fashioned the new rules for audio and video consumption. 

Now, they are breaking them. And trying to reinvent themselves. 

Some of these pivots are working, others not so much. But it is during times like these that the character of the storyteller shines though. What are their priorities? What is their strategy and vision? 

Who are they at this point of time, and what do they want to become? 

Let’s unpack. 

Netflix and Spotify are showing us who they really are

When I say Netflix, what do you think of? 

If you ask me, the first thing that comes to mind is binge-watching. When every other streaming service at the time was dropping episodes one at a time, Netflix broke ground by delivering entire seasons in one go. Its stories were worth binging, was Netflix’s hard and fast position. 

But that was then. 

Being the world’s best binge-watch destination may have been its USP once. But Netflix is evolving in response to the times. 

Earlier this week, The Wall Street Journal ran an analysis of how the video streaming platform is trying to change.