\ndigital distribution of content must be controlled to achieve any kind
\nof reasonable payment is fundamentally flawed because of this not-so-futuristic
\nrealization: in our open, mobile, social and digitally networked economy,
\ncontent publishers need to offer their goods in a way that no longer
\ncenters on the distribution of units (digital or physical) as the key
\nrevenue factor. The idea of just selling copies is toast – selling
\n(i.e. offering) access is where the money is. Kevin Kelly said it years
\nago:<\/a> we must sell what can't
\nbe copied, what’s scarce, not what is ubiquitous. <\/p>\n
The irrefutable trend Imagine when buying access In music, streaming-on-demand Just imagine where an The music industry needs Yes, I know, that price Now, content storage The perfect test bed The bottom line: content Here is my message to Remove all the reasons Permalink<\/a> | Comments<\/a> | Email This Story<\/a> If I received a dollar every time I get a question along the lines of "how can the content industries compete with FREE?" — I would be traveling first class everywhere I go. Underneath this question I often find my favorite toxic assumption: "less control over distribution means less money." This belief is as tired […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6752,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-526417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6752"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=526417"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526417\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=526417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=526417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=526417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nis that the window of opportunity of 'selling copies' (be it iTunes,
\neMusic, the Kindle or the iPad) is rapidly closing. The real opportunity,
\nthe TeleMedia
\nFuture<\/a>, is in selling access
\nand presenting a constant stream of up-sells (i.e. added values and offering
\ncontent-related experiences<\/i>). Remember, as Mark McLaughlin so
\nrighly pointed
\nout in the HuffingtonPost<\/a> recently, consumers have never really<\/i> paid for content – they
\npaid for distribution! And now, distribution means Attention and Access. <\/p>\n
\nto eBooks, you wouldn’t just pay for the authorized enjoyment of the
\nauthors’ words, but you would also gain instant access to highly curated
\nand socially-networked commentary, a fire-hose of meta-content provided
\nby your most important peers and friends that may also be reading these
\nbooks, and their ratings, explanations, slide-shows, images, links,
\nvideos, cross-references — and maybe even some direct connections with
\nthe author or the publisher.
\nIn an access-based, bundled
\nand cloud-centric content ecology, being a legitimate and authorized
\nuser enables engagement, conversation, relevance, personalization, meaning…
\ni.e. it unlocks really valuable benefits for the user. Connect with
\nFans + Reasons to Buy<\/a> (as has been mentioned on this blog a few times,
\nbefore, I believe) – that’s where the money is. <\/p>\n
\nwill without a doubt be available ‘for free' (i.e. bundled and packaged
\nby 3rd parties) or advertising supported, while many added values above and beyond the mere reproduction of music<\/i> will not – no matter
\nwhether WMG’s
\nCEO Edgar Bronfman thinks<\/a>
\nit’s a good idea ‘for the industry’ or not. <\/p>\n
\naccess-to-the-cloud model could go next: if I want a high-definition
\nversion of my favorite opera or that Blue Note Jazz Club concert from
\nlast night I could buy a premium package that provides it. If I want
\nto share my personal play-lists, ratings and comments with my Facebook
\nfriends, and get access to their content, as well, I can add the 'social
\nnetwork option' to my package. If the price is right (micro-transactions,
\nanyone…?), I'll buy – because I am already hooked on the music. <\/p>\n
\nto ask itself this question: if a permanent, unprotected download of
\na song would cost only $0.10, or if an ad-supported version of a on-demand,
\nall-you-can-eat music service would be seamlessly bundled into your
\nmobile phone subscription – would anyone still bother to scour the web
\nto find badly ripped, virus-laced tracks for free? Would we need 3-Strikes
\nor HADOPI or Digital Economy Bills? <\/p>\n
\npoint sounds ridiculous for those record label CEOs that used to sell
\nCDs for 15-25 Euros a piece, but hang on a second: if they can get 95%
\nof the users to buy access<\/i> at a much lower price (and almost
\nzero cost of duplication and distribution!), and in that process really
\nengage with them, the fans would also do the marketing for them – i.e.
\nshare the links. Sounds like a great model to me. But of course: selling
\naccess at a much lower (or feels-like-free<\/a>) price to quite literally everyone only makes
\nsense if it actually connects directly and smoothly to a multitude of
\nup-selling possibilities, such as interactive versions of eBooks, high-definition
\nversions of online radio shows, albums or concerts, in-depth analysis
\nand audio\/video commentary for news, etc. <\/p>\n
\nis starting to move from my own computer or my hard-drives into the
\ncloud – and I think this is very good news for content creators, publishers
\nand rights-holders because it makes it even easier to engage and up-sell
\nto those new
\ngeneratives<\/a>. Crucially, the
\nanswer to the constant quest of monetization is also in the cloud: I
\nbelieve most people will soon stop sharing the actual media files (since
\nthey are getting increasingly larger and larger, and therefore more
\nunwieldy) and will share only the links, the bookmarks, the metadata
\nor the tags, and that should be a boon for the content industries. <\/p>\n
\nfor ‘Media as a Service’ (MaaS) may unfold soon, with Apple's new
\niPad or Google’s Tablet (hopefully). Extending the concepts mentioned
\nabove, rather than blocking my wife or my kids from sharing an eBook
\nwith me it would be much more logical if I could easily read her book,
\nas well; but beyond the ‘copy of the words’ all else would not be
\navailable without a micro-transaction on my part, i.e. I would not have
\ninstant access to the cool video clips, the updated links, the footnotes,
\nthe ratings, etc; i.e. all that valuable context that will make eBooks
\nso much more powerful would be out of my reach until I validate my own
\naccess. <\/p>\n
\nsharing isn't the real problem: high price points, outmoded, pre-web
\ntoll-booth concepts, broken relationships and processes, low values
\nfor high prices, bad technology and service, and utter lack of conversation
\nand engagement are. <\/p>\n
\npublishers and content owners: lower the prices for access to your content
\nto the point of unanimous excitement, use open standards and technology
\nplatforms that work for everyone, everywhere; bundle and package as
\nattractively as you can (then: repeat). Team up with ISPs, mobile operators,
\nadvertisers and device makers. <\/p>\n
\nthat your users may have to avoid your new toll-booths and skip the
\ndesired conversion to 'paid' – the lower the hurdle for legitimate usage
\nand paid engagement, the higher the added values, the less you will
\nhave to worry about 'competing with free'.<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n<\/a>
\n<\/p>\n<\/img><\/a>
<\/img><\/a>\n<\/div>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"