Free Ride: How Digital Parasites are Destroying the Culture Business, and How the Culture Business Can Fight Back

My how things have changed in a decade. There have been huge changes in the media landscape since Free Ride was written a little over a decade ago. People are now comfortable streaming movies on phones. A computer might as well be a big screen. Paying for multiple streaming services is also the norm. Buying individual movies or songs has become rare. It seems that media producers have gained some ground. However, all is not well in the universe.

The author argues that tech companies have appropriated the "content" that from media companies without proper compensation. This has lead to a tough times for various media companies. The internet has not been the panacea that they hoped for. However, when you dig deeper into the argument, it turns out that people had not previously been paying for the media they desired. There were various forms of cross-subsidies involved. The internet helped unbundle these leaving media producers looking for a source of revenue.

Newspapers are a good example. Papers are sold for cheap (or even given away.) The cost of a newspaper may not even pay for the paper it is printed on. The newspaper provided reporting and content that interested the readers. It also was a medium for selling eyeballs to advertisers. Enter the internet. Now instead of paying the newspaper for a classified ad, you sell your couch on Craigslist. When looking to make a big purchase, you will search company websites instead of going to the newspaper. Display and keyword advertising can also be keyed to your web usage instead of what section of the newspaper you are reading. The revenue source of the newspaper evaporated. People can use Google to go directly to the newspaper article that interests them. It isn't that people are getting for free what they used to pay for. It is that they have never paid for it. The person selling the couch was paying for the reporting. Now they sell the couch for free on Craigslist.

Copyrights in general had been carried away. There is little justification in extending the copyright after the fact. (How does this encourage more creativity in the past?) Other media operations were filled with cross-subsidies. Cable companies forced you to pay for hundreds of channels you don't watch to get the few that you do. You had to pay for a full album of music even if you only wanted a single song. This unbundling requires adaptation. A lot of that adaptation has taken place since the book was written.

Alas, for the consumer things are getting worse. Today there are multiple streaming services. Each has a bundle of changing content. To get the "top hits", you must subscribe to multiple services. This would include a lot you are not interested in. The change away from physical media also eliminates the second hand market. There is no physical copy that you have to sell or give away. This gives producers greater control. It also leaves the black market as the primary way to "pass along" media you enjoy. 

What content should be free? What should be paid for? Did the pre-internet age of fat-cat gatekeepers make sense? Did the Napster free-for all make sense? There were issues with both. I don't think we have stumbled on the best method for encouraging new content and ensuring it is available. Hopefully things will shake out for the better in the next few years.