What if all online music was given away for free? John Battelle's on his Searchblog writes this fictional post predicting EMI giving away all music in the autumn. It makes sense. Wall Street Journal, New York Times and CBS are going to or are already giving away embed codes for all their video content so we all can host (with ads) on our own sites. We hyperlink content already to associate with it on our blogs and websites, why not give away music and film too, give away all content? It only takes one person to find the content for free and pass it on to cause the domino effect, to all of the online world. More people see it, read it, listen to it which drives the indirect effect, causing more offline sales through word of mouth, through the offline crowd. Onliners are the Influencers. Soon we're all be equal.
All it would take is for old film and music industry to embrace idea and to thrash out some effective revenue models. If you give away movies, games and music online why not run pre-roll ads, contextual advertising, or much more effective, subtle multi-client product placement when it comes to professional video/TV or film content. We already all engage for hours with Facebook which we get for free, why not everything else? Online = Free? Offline=Expensive?
I'll finish with this damning post from theregister.co.uk where CD sales are falling 40% in some markets and record companies are desperately trying to claw back revenues through live, merchandise and brand advertising.
John Kennedy, chairman of the IPFPI, a UK music association says it all. 'The old model is not working' but although we are loading our iPods up with our past, we're not buying new music, we'll too busy playing online games, having virtual sex on second life, writing blogs and commenting on what we care about, watching short video and listening to podcasts...I could go on...
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