Free Content: Why Not?
from the people-are-starting-to-get-it dept
Slowly but surely people are beginning to understand that “free” is not bad when it comes to business. Here’s a VC (of all people) arguing that giving away music for free makes sense. He bases his example on the way coal used to be distributed, pointing out that as distribution costs dropped drastically, the entire business changed – improving the situation for everyone. This is the argument we’ve been trying to make here for years. The whole issue of downloadable music and music sharing isn’t “consumers vs. the music industry”. It’s an opportunity for the music industry. The internet is the greatest distribution mechanism for music ever invented, and it hasn’t cost the music industry a dime to build it. The fact that they’re blind to the opportunities is simply due to their own shortsightedness in not being able to figure out how to change their business model. Of course, what’s going to happen is that people outside the music industry (or new entrants into the music industry) will figure out the business model for them – and the current industry players will finally fade away.
