What IS the future of free?
Yesterday I went to the RSA to watch Wired editor-in-chief and author of the Long Tail, Chris Anderson, speak about the issue visited in his latest book, ‘Free: The Future of a Radical Price’. He started off by covering the history of free through the ages: from Jello who used to give away free recipe books to drive demand in the early 1900s (a pioneering marketing tactic at the time), to Microsoft BizSpark‘s model in the current decade where start-ups that are less than 3 years old and have a revenue of less than $100 million can access it free, but others have to pay.
He also presented Alan Murray (executive editor of the Wall Street Journal)’s 5 tips on charging for content, something that we often discuss at Made By Many, and that will be useful to everyone who has thought of the micro-payment system. Murray’s tips are:
1. The best model is a mix of paid and free content.
