In Wired.com’s “Free!” article, Chris Anderson explains how the business model of how giving something for nothing hooks marketable people. They have no reason to not at-least try it right? Giving away software such as web browsers seems like a huge profit loss for developers, but gaining a large amount of users and selling ad space makes up the difference in profits. Your basic version of whatever software is free. developers hope you like enough to buy the “upgrade package” that includes more fancy toys and options to make the thing you already like better.

I also really liked the ida of The Long Tail. As described in another Chris Anderson article, The Long Tail gives producers of goods a viable way to insert there product in to a market ruled by major groups of retailers and product lines.

For instance Netflix gives users a way to watch several documentaries and B-side films that local stores like Blockbuster simply cant house. Amazon.com was a pioneer in the long-tail game by giving consumers a way to purchase numerous amounts of books that local bookstores simply wont have ont he shelf. It evened the playing field per se.

This idea has become extremely relevant in the music industry thanks to digitalization of music distribution. I remember when all of the music i owned was in a large black case full of CD’s. Outside of that case there was the radio, or my friends black cases of purchased CD’s. We only knew what was thrown at us, and living in a north Austin Suburb not many exciting musical acts were thrown my way.

Now all i have to to do get a new album is find it on whichever website, click the link, and wait a few minutes. I dont fully appreciate any of it and i can’t wait to find something else. The playing field of just mainstream artist’s ruling consumers ears are over. Of coarse that correlation fits in any entertainment media field.

The idea of getting things for free is somewhat peculiar if you think about it. I almost got upset because a coffee shop I visited didn’t have free WiFi so I could write this post. A few years ago I would have been amazed that the place offered it. New media things are being taken for granted and are becoming part of the daily life that starts to disappear. There are good and bad parts to the whole concept, even in this post. I dont think there is anything anyone can do to reverse any of the progress, to make people pay. All we can do is figure out how to make money by giving things away, and how to benefit off of what others give to us.

In [The Long Tail] http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.10/tail.html, Anderson compares two different books: [Into Thin Air] & [Touching the Void]. Into Thin Air, released in 1998, became a bestseller & a sensation amongst readers while Touching the void, released 10 years earlier in 1988 had been long forgotten until the two started being compared on amazon.com. Readers of the earlier book started leaving good reviews enticing other readers to purchase it. It has since outsold Into Thin Air & has even been made into a movie, all thanks to http://www.amazon.com/. The article reiterates the power of the internet in people’s decision making, & how it can spark trends, or in this case, revitalize them.

In Free! Why $0.00 Is the Future of Business, Anderson talks about things being for free can still result in profit. Google and craigslist are prime examples of this situation. These two web sites are used to search for all kinds of things yet they don’t charge the user. Rather, they make their money from advertisers who want their name to be seen by online users. Free not only applies to the usage of these two web sites, but also to music. Bands now post their music for free downloads but mostly important, for free promotion.

In Bubble, Amazon and eBay are profiled because they two of the most successful online businesses. Both businesses offer a variety of items to online shoppers. eBay can help people sell their items while shop as well and Amazon is known for having multiple items in stock that are available at the customer’s request.

The post on the long tail was something that really interested me, as someone who thinks of capitalization as the way to do things, this shows you a whole new way to go about it, and still make money from it. Its the perfect business model for the new digital world, as space becomes ever more infinite you can afford to run your business like this and do it in such a manner that you change the whole game completely. Although seeing things like this and reading these articles makes me wonder what these, “brick and mortar” establishments will have to do in order to stay competitive and not fizzle and and become forgotten.

Lastly, the story on free is really a new way of thinking, and being on what I consider to be the tech savvy side of the business model, I like it! This idea is the exact reas0n why things like record companies are continuing to lose money, at least the companies that insist on doing business by the old model. Things always change and just like the long tail business model, if you don’t also change, eventually you will become obsolete and unnecessary. Now, this does not mean you should follow the most successful business model and hope that you can capitalize on it, in fact, you should not do this at all. We should all be looking for better way of doing everything, not just business transactions but all aspects of our lives should strive to be done in the most efficient and honest way. It’s the companies that continually do this that get out in front and can weather through tough times like the one’s mentioned in the “Bubble” video.

Another thing both articles talked about what how the pricing of things such as books and music is coming closer to zero. With the ability to get music online for free and the freebies companies offer in exchange for hoping those people become customers. Technology is becoming cheaper and cheaper to make thus making it cheaper to sell to consumers. Online sites such as Google and Yahoo are completely free because they make their money solely on advertisements. It makes you wonder how much longer it will be till almost everything online is free.

If there is a way to get things for free online then people will find it. No one wants to spend large amounts of their own money when you can get the same thing for free. Now instead of the companies and corporations being in charge of how their products are being sold and for what price the consumers have a bigger impact on that because they are demanding these products along with others that the company hadn’t even considered.

In the documentary the Bubble it talks about two emerging online companies that changed the way business was done online. Amazon and ebay are both online businesses that allow the exchange of goods without the tangible aspect. They are also allowing for more of what consumers want without actually telling them what they want. This is different from the way in which we were accustomed of being told by the media what we wanted. With the ability to see things such as what is recommended if we like one sort of thing, which amazon has done an amazing job with, we can find niches that maybe we wouldn’t have found without this emergence of online business.

The documentary Download: The True Story of the Internet, part 3 The Bubble, showed the beginnings of Ecommerce.  I learned how the great ideas of Amazon and Ebay came out of garages and turned into the giants they are today.

The trending themes between the two companies seem to be revolving around how they interact with their users.  For Amazon it’s give the costumers MORE of what they’re asking for.  For Ebay, let the users take the technology and run.  Overall the two are trending toward more and more user interaction with business and instead of it being a lecture it’s becoming more like a conversation.

In Chris Anderson’s article in Wired magazine, The Long Tail, he describes how markets of entertainment are no long being controlled by the big producers and production companies.  Instead it’s fanning out to cover every single form of entertainment that an individual might find entertaining.

I’ve seen this happening a lot as I used to work for Barns and Noble.  Our biggest problem was our physical limitations, only so much space on the shelves.  Amazon never had this problem and so the costs of inventory don’t exist for them.

Amazon’s ability to refer people to things that Amazon had a good idea they would buy, turned out to be their biggest pay off.  This allows the “whatever they could possibly want” part to come in.  Now the most obscure of films, music, video games or whatever has an equal shot at being purchased as the post popular of the same genre.  It’s now possible for distributors to, as Anderson called it, “embrace the niche!”

We can’t compete with this in a physical world with physical limitations.

I liked how Anderson described it as we are moving from “a world of scarcity to a world of abundance.”

I think it’s just a matter of when ever someone builds a transporter and can beam me anything that I could physically need to my home.  When this happens all business will be like ordering from an online catalog and then just hitting the send button.

I also enjoyed Anderson’s article titled Free.  It showed that one day in the future the best way to do online and maybe even offline business is at 100% off.  Businesses like Google and Craig’s List don’t charge their costumers a cent for the use of their products.  Advertising is how those two make their money.

I see a difference in things that have physical products.  I can’t just give away my wigits for free when they cost me X amount of money to manufacture and distribute.  I’d never make a cent that way.  However, I seem to always find someone who is willing to give me something that he or she made for free as a friend.  They do this because they know that what ever I make for a hobby, they are more than welcome to choose one for themselves in return.

This is already taking form in the music industry as bands start to make their music available for download free of charge.

I think the idea of a free economy isn’t too far fetched to say it’s impossible.  I think that one day everyone will be giving what they make away simply because they love making them and they will all be free to take what others make in return.

Maybe my vision of the world’s future economy is a bit idealistic to the point of being down right crazy but who really knows anymore.  The old economic rules have been turned on their heads.

“Free! Why $0.00 is the Future of Business” by Chris Anderson makes a valid argument that the  best way to do business is to not be afraid to let things be free.  Not everything has to have a profit and with the internet everything is pretty much free.  I like to look at the music industry when it comes to the idea of free.  At first, artists opposed their music being out online for people to access for free.  Now thanks to self-promotion, no-named bands are making a name for themselves.  Anyone can create a myspace, upload their band’s music for billions of people to listen to.  The more people discover new bands then the more albums, merchandise, and ticket sales will increase.

The same idea applies to “The Long Tail,” also written by Chris Anderson.  This article points out how with the internet, people can stir away from main-stream and discover books, movies, and music on their own without the help of television or radio.  People like being in charge and discovering new things that they like on their own.  With the non-main stream vibe the internet provides, people are in charge of finding out what they like without being told what they should like.

Amazon, Blockbuster, Twitter and eBay have followed suit by making deals to have widgets of their businesses embedded into TV’s. Samsung has an app marketplace where owners of certain TV’s can go online through their television and download these widgets ( http://bit.ly/dyIUar ) to access this content away from a computer.

The iPad is launching soon and will undoubtedly be a game changer much like everything else Apple has released as of recent. I am willing to bet money that many online businesses are coming up with or already have strategies in place as to how their business will be involved in the iPad. Users love the ability to access content online on their computers but this is no longer good enough. Give me my content everywhere. My laptop, phone, TV, gaming console and anything else I can get my hands on that has a power button!

It seems to me, from watching some of the online videos in class http://bit.ly/7LMA5z, that this last item is the most important. Determine that you are going to give yourself a certain amount of time to make this work, and never, ever let up. You will either find or stumble upon the right formula or the right audience. Testing and adjusting is the trick. You’ve got to find where your market is, and that is probably the biggest challenge. I like the idea that Gillette’s friend gave him, as noted in “Free” by Chris Anderson (http://bit.ly/3wPxef); make something people use and throw away. It’s a great idea:  giving away free software because it costs almost nothing in order to get a few people to buy the deluxe version. However, I think the major opportunity afforded by the Internet is the lack of sales time required. Make your pitch once (or twice, or tweak it regularly) and then let it go. You can work your “day job” while your business is out there working for you.

Then, of course, if you bundle the opportunity with a little more of your time and some of your determination, you’ve got a winning combination! (I’m an optimist that’s too busy, so I don’t have the time to be creative – but I adapt really well. I’m trying to figure out how to make my combo fit into the winning combination.)