Apparently there is such a thing as a free lunch. Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails capitalized on offering their music for free, Google lets us search, e-mail and use all kinds of free applications, and AT&T will give you a cell phone gratis, if you just buy their monthly plan. These are only a fraction of the businesses that have helped to establish a full-fledged economy based on the concept of zero dollars down.
Wired's Chris Anderson explains the recent phenomenon of making lots of money by charging nothing. Is everything moving toward "free now, pay later"? What are the consequences?
Bio
Chris Anderson
Chris Anderson is editor in chief of WIRED magazine, a position he's held since 2001. During his tenure, the magazine has received eight National Magazine Awards and seven additional nominations. It won the prestigious top prize for general excellence in 2005, 2007, and 2009. In 2009, Adweek honored WIRED as its Magazine of the Decade.
Anderson is the author of two New York Times best sellers, The Long Tail and Free: The Future of a Radical Price. He is also one of the founders of Booktour.com, a free online service that connects authors on tour with potential audiences. In 2007, he was named to the Time 100, the news magazine's annual list of the most influential people in the world. Before joining WIRED, Anderson served as U.S. business editor, Asia business editor, and technology editor at The Economist. He began his media career as an editor at the two premier science journals, Nature and Science.
Kerry Curtis
Kerry Curtis is a professor emeritus at Golden Gate University and a member of the board of the Commonwealth Club of California.
I don't agree that old media had well separated consumer and advertiser interests. An obvious example is the volume of TV ads -- on many TV channels ads are much louder than content, and I fail to see how could that be in any way good for the viewers.
Another example is the very thing Chris talked about in the story about a Google guy, who was surprised that Chris was trying to hide commercial ties between the magazine and advertisers by moving ads away from articles about related products.
@Invictus_88 You can still save full programs, chapters or highlights to your saved programs (library) by clicking "Add to Profile," which is to the right of each entry. Hope this helps.