The Stuff You Really Want Will Still Cost -- a Lot, Advertising Age, June 29, 2009.
Finally, a smart person who is widely considered cool calls B.S. on Chris Anderson's popular argument that everything should be free.
Here's an excerpt from Malcom's New Yorker piece pointing out the flaws in Chris's argument. Malcolm was paid to write the piece, of course. Handsomely. As was Chris for writing his bestseller:
There are four strands of argument here: a technological claim (digital infrastructure is effectively Free), a psychological claim (consumers love Free), a procedural claim (Free means never having to make a judgment), and a commercial claim (the market created by the technological Free and the psychological Free can make you a lot of money).
The only problem is that in the middle of laying out what he sees as the new business model of the digital age Anderson is forced to admit that one of his main case studies, YouTube, "has so far failed to make any money for Google."
Tech Is Too Cheap to Meter: It's Time to Manage for Abundance, Not Scarcity (includeds video)
By Chris Anderson
06.22.09
Free: The Future of a Radical Price
This title will be released on July 7, 2009.
Amazon: The New York Times bestselling author heralds the future of business in Free.
In his revolutionary bestseller, The Long Tail, Chris Anderson demonstrated how the online marketplace creates niche markets, allowing products and consumers to connect in a way that has never been possible before. Now, in Free, he makes the compelling case that in many instances businesses can profit more from giving things away than they can by charging for them. Far more than a promotional gimmick, Free is a business strategy that may well be essential to a company's survival.
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