Chris Hoofnagle at Denialism Blog Blog points out a book review by Malcolm Gladwell of Chris Anderson’s work. In the article he posits that FREE will never be a viable price. I concur. For many who advocate letting advertising pay for everything (or medical savings to pay for healthcare costs), let me offer the following;
There is no free.
The argument can be expanded to almost anything. There will be no free healthcare - it must be paid for by someone (perhaps the "freemium" model will prevail). Public radio is not free - you have paid for it in a hundred subtle ways - including the purchase of a radio receiver.
We are simply not recognizing the impact of micro-monetization and the value it brings to a provider. Without middlemen and distributors, those content providers can reap their rewards directly, however, the amount that they reap - due to the new pricing model - is typically far lower than expected, but likely a more accurate representation of market value.
