The word 'free' evokes many feelings in individuals, excitement, happiness, curiosity and of course, extreme doubt. To the wise and perhaps the not so wise consumer, the word free conjures up images of "catches" and the expression "too good to be true" because as life often shows us, nothing is free (at least not through legal means) and more often than not, that is indeed the case. However, free sometimes really does mean free. Anderson, proposes the idea that free is not as rare as one might think and that it is, in reality, a worthwhile and beneficial strategy.
Some things are more profitable being free rather than for a price, as counter-intuitive and slightly preposterous as that sounds. Times have changed where individuals can receive their news, entertainment and leisure activities from more than a handful of sources. Instead of purchasing a newspaper from the stand on a daily basis or even a subscription, one can simply go online to find countless news sites. Anderson utilizes the example of free newspapers intended for today's generation. For instance, here in New York City, amNY and Metro are the free newspapers found in many subway entrances and street corners for anyone to take.
Also, free can sometimes be considered a sort of a 'teaser' or promotional tactic. As Anderson mentioned, Radiohead's 'In Rainbows' album is proof of that. In a quite risky move, the album was sold online as a 'name your price' album, ranging from $0 to infinity. This move proved immensely beneficial and spurred album sales and the album skyrocketed to number #1 when it was released in stores. In this manner, free can boost sales of concerts, merchandise and other related products and ventures.
In the article that related immensely to the aforementioned example, "For Some, Free Music Is an Investment That Pays Off" Carmananica reports on a recent trend popular among rappers in which the internet is utilized to increase the rapper's fame and rank. A line from the article that illustrates the quite clever use of the internet by the rapper is "release a string of mixtapes, the free albums that were once native to street corners but are now the preserve of the Internet, and augment them with an active social-media presence, from Twitter to video blogging." In my opinion, this presents a win-win situation because the artist, whoever he or she may be, receives more recognition and popularity by allowing themselves to be discussed and hopefully buzzed about. In addition, by releasing many of their songs, free for anyone to download or listen to, the internet user has a means to download music from many artists and "test out different artists" without any risk of legal action against them. Without a doubt, both the artist and music lover gain in this situation.
An example that is not as fortunate, at least from the music industry's point of view is exemplified in the article, "The Music Industry's New Internet Problem". In this case, it is the big companies such as SONY who do not really profit from services such as Pandora Internet Radio and Imeem. Ironically, these same services were in a sense initiated by the music industry themselves in an attempt to drive up sales from music lovers. Quite the opposite occurred, when individuals opted to utilize the internet for their music needs as opposed to buying the music. Using myself as an example, I often go on Youtube and Grooveshark.com to listen to music, rarely downloading music and never buying a CD. Why buy a CD and take the time to save the tracks on my laptop when I could simply go on the playlist section of my grooveshark account?
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