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Free MP3s... If You Sit Through An Ad
from the interesting-model...-but... dept
I've seen all sorts of business models involving "free, but ad supported" music, but none of them really seem sustainable. This latest one is different, but I'm still not sure it has a chance. Rather than the typical "play music and have ads off to the side somewhere" model that most take, Free All Music, gives you a chance to download DRM-free MP3s... if you first watch a video ad. They even let you pick what sponsor you want to let "buy you" the music (and then, that advertiser gets to put your user name in future ads, noting that you downloaded the music).
While this is a more creative use of advertising that probably has more value to the advertiser than the typical ad-supported music sites (where most people just ignore the ads), it still seems likely to have some serious problems. First, the site is betting that consumption habits on such a site would be the same as iTunes -- 15 songs over the course of three months -- and is looking for ad deals to support that. But... that assumes that as the price drops from $1 to "time spent watching an ad" consumption wouldn't go up. Without the monetary barrier, it seems likely that consumption would increase significantly.
On top of that, I don't really see how the economics work, given traditional models in both the music and ad industry. It's not that those models necessarily make sense (in fact, I'd argue neither make sense), but it's what both sides will expect. On that front, you've got the record labels, who are used to getting approximately $0.67 per downloaded song. Assuming that needs to be made up by the ad (and even ignoring any profit for the site), then every single ad shown needs to cost that same $0.67. Translated into traditional ad terms, that's a CPM of $670. Yikes. I don't know any advertiser will to pay anything close to that -- even if it's targeted and you have a half decent chance of the person paying attention. Most CPM ad rates online these days are in the sub-$5 area. Convincing advertisers to jump to a $670 CPM on an unproven model? Good luck.
Finally, even if it's "free" it sounds pretty inconvenient. The fact is that people do have alternatives, such as file sharing networks. While they're not legal, they don't require you to waste a bunch of time before you can get the music you want to listen to. I'm sure some people would use it, but not enough to really matter long term.
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Good luck.
...given traditional models in both the music and ad industry. It's not that those models necessarily make sense (in fact, I'd argue neither make sense)...
This got me thinking - What the recording industry expects and what really is available are so far out of whack, it's mind-boggling.
The recording industry wants you to sign up for online music (Well, actually, they would probably prefer you buy a brand-new CD), put in credit card/paypal info and then go through menus to select songs for download.
Or, you can go to a bittorrent tracker and get entire discographies with a couple of mouse clicks and no personal information whatsoever.
I just can't imagine how this is going to end.
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It's still worth experimenting with though, no matter how odd or crazy sounding the idea they come up with is. I'd really love it if my cable TV service was free due to all the ads I have to sit through, which are quite numerable these days. As it is right now I have to pay for the privilege of watching those ads during my shows. It's really not hard to see why people are moving away from cable with it's "have my cake and eat it too" attitude.
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Re: Good luck.
"I just can't imagine how this is going to end."
I can imagine it for you! It will end with the eventual arrival of a 'music industry' which would be unrecognized as such by members of the music industry of today.
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CPM
This makes me think of something I read the other day. I suspect you've seen it, Mike, but TechCrunch ran an article by Shelby Bonnie (Whiskey Media CEO / CNET founder / former IAB chairman) advocating the end of the CPM rate, because it prevents people from experimenting with potentially superior advertising models:
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/09/25/lets-kill-the-cpm/
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I don't think this is entirely fair. Certainly some of the music industry is willing to accept lower sums of money for the music. Examples include AmazonMp3's daily special, and Emusic's business model. Perhaps the number becomes closer to 30-40c per track.
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An idea
Schools need to better teach music production. Include it as a part of the current music curriculum.
The technology is so cheap and easy, that it should be considered normal, and commonplace that kids exiting middle school be able to have a CD of their performance/s.
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Re: An idea
how are most schools going to afford the "cheap stuff" when they can't even afford to keep teachers on for band or orchestra or even straight music classes?
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Convenience
I don't know about that. Granted, I never did spend copious amounts of time on file sharing networks, but I do remember trying to find something and having to wade through a lot of bad data (e.g., incorrectly or intentionally misnamed files); plus if you're talking a peer-to-peer network, the file download performance can vary greatly depending on who has the file and their connection speeds.
If they can eliminate a lot of that hassle, sitting through a minute of advertising could be worth it, especially for someone like me who doesn't know Bittorrent like the back of his hand and can locate and download a file faster than you can think of it.
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67ยข per ad view, huh?
Man, the only one with the pockets to support that cost structure is Microsoft, and it actually may be worthwhile.
Here's a sample ad called "Behold the delights of Vista".
It's actually pretty well produced.
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trueanthem
There is another site that has been around for a 1.5 now that does something similar. Instead of a video ad before downloading content you get DRM-free content but with a advertisement at the start of the song. The ads seem to primarily be the artist introducing the song like a dj and saying brought to you by ________ advertiser.
So far the site appears to only have independent bands.
It's an interesting business model with a presumably cheaper CPM. While I expected the ads to be incredibly annoying I have found that they aren't that noticeable. It's not necessarily the answer but it is another model trying to make it work.
www.trueanthem.com
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Re:
I could not agree more. It burns my ass every month to pay the cable bill when what comes out of the cable is something like 50% advertising.
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I can imagine it for you! It will end with the eventual arrival of a 'music industry' which would be unrecognized as such by members of the music industry of today.
More than likely because it won't actually BE an "industry"...
lol
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Re: Re: Good luck.
see, i was really tempted to say 'badly' in response to that line, because it was just such a nice setup...
but your answer's much better :D
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After the Ad they should ask the user some questions about the AD to ensure they actually watched and listened to the ad. That's what I would have it do.
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Re:
ie: multiple choice questions.
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Re:
But now I regret giving them ideas because this can be used to force people to watch commercials.
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Sounds Good
Sounds alright to me. Downloading from a direct download site is USUALLY faster than Torrent, especially for small files like this. And taking out the hassle of trying to find the file is cool.
The deal-maker would be who's getting the profits off the ads. Artists? HELL YES.
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I've used it
I'm part of the FAM private beta, and here's what I've noticed:
1. Some of the ads are lame, some are really cool.
2. They're only 15 seconds long.
3. Once you get the song, and you listen through 4 minutes of music, you don't even remember having watched an ad.
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