{"id":353,"date":"2009-05-18T16:11:56","date_gmt":"2009-05-18T16:11:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wp\/2009\/05\/the_politics_of_free_-_why_giv\/"},"modified":"2009-05-18T16:11:56","modified_gmt":"2009-05-18T16:11:56","slug":"the_politics_of_free_-_why_giv-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/2009\/05\/the_politics_of_free_-_why_giv-2.html","title":{"rendered":"The Politics Of Free – Why Giving "Stuff" Away Is An Interesting Business Model"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"freeworld.jpg\"<\/span><\/p>\n

Over at the top of the Studio 360<\/i> website on their segment about the state of arts journalism, there’s a quote by me that says that the best business model right now is to give away as much “stuff” as you can. Okay, a bit inelegantly expressed, in the course of a long audio interview for the show. You can hear the full segment here:<\/p>\n

\n<\/object><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

But the idea isn’t new. And it’s not mine. Cory Doctorow has long been a proponent of the business model of free, and he gives away his books. Why?<\/p>\n

\nGiving away ebooks gives me<\/a> artistic, moral and
\ncommercial satisfaction. The commercial question is the one that comes
\nup most often: how can you give away ebooks and still make money?<\/p>\n

\nFor me — for pretty much every writer — the
\nbig problem isn’t piracy, it’s obscurity (thanks to Tim O’Reilly for
\nthis great aphorism). Of all the people who failed to buy this book
\ntoday, the majority did so because they never heard of it, not because
\nsomeone gave them a free copy. Mega-hit best-sellers in science fiction
\nsell half a million copies — in a world where 175,000 attend the San
\nDiego Comic Con alone, you’ve got to figure that most of the people who
\n“like science fiction” (and related geeky stuff like comics, games,
\nLinux, and so on) just don’t really buy books. I’m more interested in
\ngetting more of that wider audience into the tent than making sure that
\neveryone who’s in the tent bought a ticket to be there.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

 Marketing guru Seth Godin has also figured this out<\/a> with his books:<\/p>\n

\n

Seven years ago, I wrote a book called Unleashing the Ideavirus<\/a>.
\nIt’s about how ideas spread. In the book, I go on and on about how free
\nideas spread faster than expensive ones. That’s why radio is so
\nimportant in making music sell.<\/p>\n

Anyway, I brought it to my publisher and said, “I’d like you to
\npublish this, but I want to give it away on the net.” They passed. They
\nused to think I was crazy, but now they were sure of it. So I decided
\nto just give it away. The first few days, the book was downloaded<\/a>
\n3,000 times (note: forgive the layout. It’s not what I would do if I
\nwas doing it today). The next day, the number went up. And then up.
\nSoon it was 100,000 and then a million. The best part of all is that I
\nintentionally made the file small enough to email. Even without
\ncounting the folks who emailed it hundreds of times to co-workers, it’s
\neasily on more than 2,000,000 computers. I didn’t ask anything in
\nreturn. No centralized email tool. Here it is. Share it.<\/p>\n

A Google search finds more than 200,000 matches for the word
\n‘ideavirus’, which I made up. Some will ask, “how much money did you
\nmake?” And I think a better question is, “how much did it cost you?”
\nHow much did it cost you to write the most popular ebook ever and to
\nreach those millions of people and to do a promotion that drove an
\nexpensive hardcover to #5 on Amazon and #4 in Japan and led to
\ntranslation deals in dozens of countries and plenty of speaking gigs?<\/p>\n

It cost nothing.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The software industry has largely moved to a free model. Open source software runs some of the biggest websites. The Apple Apps model now is to offer a free version of an app, hook a large user base for it, and build a market for a paid upgrade. Public radio is largely a free model. Hear the program for free, but if you use it and like it, please consider becoming a paid member. Millions do. <\/p>\n

Who can afford to give away what they make? If you’re Bruce Springsteen and sell every ticket, you don’t need to. If you’re Radiohead<\/a> and you want to experiment, you give away your new album online, then hope real fans pay for the hard version.<\/p>\n

\n

The Internet exploded with Radiohead-related chatter. In the three days
\nafter the announcement, blogpulse.com, a search engine that reports on
\ndaily blog activity, showed more than a 1,300 percent increase in the
\nnumber of posts mentioning the band…<\/p>\n

A year after the release of “In Rainbows,” the big numbers started to
\nroll in. The album had sold 3 million copies, including downloads from
\nradiohead.com, according to the band’s publisher, Warner\/Chappell. The
\nsales from the band’s website alone exceeded the total sales for the
\nband’s previous album, “Hail to the Thief.” The figures included
\n100,000 limited-edition box sets, sold at the U.S. equivalent of $81 —
\nan $8 million haul, with the band keeping most of the profits. The
\npublicity windfall helped ensure one of the most successful tours of
\n2008, with the band playing to 1.2 million fans.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The point is to build a base of people who care about you and what you’re doing and then give them reasons to pay you.<\/p>\n

Tomorrow: Politics of Free, Part II<\/b> – why a larger audience with lower sales beats a small audience who pays a lot.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Over at the top of the Studio 360 website on their segment about the state of arts journalism, there’s a quote by me that says that the best business model right now is to give away as much “stuff” as you can. 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We created entertainment around the things we buy (how we justify paying $4.50 for\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 12 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 12 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/2009\/07\/attention-2.html#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"supermarket seizure.jpg","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/supermarket%20seizure.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1217,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/2016\/10\/1217.html","url_meta":{"origin":353,"position":4},"title":"This Week’s Top AJ Stories: A Huge Drop In Dance Audiences, MFA Programs.","author":"Douglas McLennan","date":"October 23, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"This Week: Why has dance attendance fallen off a cliff in New York?... Applications for MFA programs are down and things are looking bleak... Has our ad-supported business model for content killed quality?... 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