Free

My brother in law has been talking about this concept in general for years. He's certainly not the first, nor only. But he's excellent at getting to the core of a subject and explaining it in its simplest form, so I've been listening.

This is an issue/conundrum that faces all content owners - record labels, publishing companies, film studios, tv networks, etc. In general the conversation hinges on how a company can monetize their product in this digital age. If people can get things for free, how do they sustain their old business model? The short answer is they can't. So these companies are faced to figure out what people are willing to pay for and what they aren't. If people can get music free, and the record label can't monetize in the way they used to, how do they adapt their business to offer something that consumers will gladly pay for?

I wouldn't even presume to write about the multitudes of issues surrounding this. However, I did read an article over the weekend called Better Than Free by Kevin Kelly that articulated the issue so clearly that I've been thinking about it ever since.