I was listening to the radio this morning about a police incident in which a woman was found of the Barking train line in London, and how the area had been sealed off and police were conducting their investigation and collecting evidence first before moving the body.
Well if they found some evidence to convict, say, me for her murder, and the conviction was based on THEIR evidence that THEY had collected, surely as some defence I would be allowed to collect my OWN evidence, and thereby call their judgment and findings into question.
Just a curious thought whilst waiting in a long queue of cars in Barking....
Wednesday, 16 May 2007
Friday, 4 May 2007
Does a Free Business Model Work?
I read an interesting article yesterday (it was yesterday when I wrote this, it might weeks later now that you are reading this, depends on when I posted this) in which it stated giving your work away for free is good for business.
Yes, you read that right, giving your work away for free is good for business.
The article was in direct relation to the DRM (Digital Rights Management), which is a method by which companies digitally watermarking their intellectual property directly to the buyer. So in this way a MP3 music track or photograph or movie that you legally obtain is then digitally encoded with your email address or data about you, so that should you copy the digital file, not only will they be able to track the person who copied the music illegally, but also prevent another person from playing that same piece of music or film on another computer.
This is a business model which has been brought to the PC world courtesy of Microsoft and its Vista operating system. DRM is nothing new, and Microsoft can't claim to be the first. In fact DRM has been around for many years, its just that there hasn't been widespread adoption of the method to control illegal sales and piracy within operating systems, and no one in their right mind would upgrade their Windows XP so that their entire movie and music collection was rendered useless?
The music industry (and to a certain extent most other digital media organisations) has had to face a massive turnaround in the way it sells its products. This has been painful, slow and very bloody, and while I should be very sorry for them, I can't but they only have themselves to blame as they have caused most of the problems, as well as being very very hostile against even genuine customers. I'll never forgive them for poisoning Metallica with their lies.
How? By not recognising earlier that their safe income was about to be blown out of the water, and that the traditional methods of making money within the industry were about to change completely. Previously ignored/unheard of methods of revenue would be thrust in our faces without regard. Whoever was in charge of product development, business development or just business strategy ought to be shot, this was something that should have been forseen years ago.
We all bought into music CDs knowing it was the medium of the future. But, sadly many years later it isnt. But this time Ive bought into DVDs knowing they are NOT the future. Not even Blu-Ray or DVD-HD will last. Technology is changing at a blisteringly fast pace.
But going back to my original point above about giving product away for free is a good business model. How does someone create an income when they are giving their product away?
Lets examine another point before I reveal the secret. If a business model for making money exists but isnt perfect, and that person does their utmost to protect that business model, then they shouldnt be surprised when someone eventually comes along with a much better business model, thereby making the old one obselete. This is happening right now, and the companies involved are doing their level best to destroy these models. You need only look at internet radio, and sites like www.pandora.com, which is actually doing more for the music industry than the music industry.
DRM is a terrible method of controlling sales, it bites hard against the typical consumer, treating them as a pirate, and a thief before they even enter their credit card details online to purchase a track. I wont lie and say getting hold of illegal music is easy, but its much easier that getting music legally at times. You download a peer-to-peer file sharing program select the music you want and away you go.
An efficient model will come to replace the current way of selling music, and another model will follow that once that no longer becomes efficient. So how do you make money by giving your product away for free? If Microsoft gave away Vista for free, they would never make a penny on it. Yet they sell it for £ 200 roughly, and plough millions into advertising. I wonder how much they spend on advertising compared to actual sales. In this instance I'd imagine they are in for the longhaul, that they are expecting sales many years from now. They or indeed anyone would make money by creating a buzz, a demand for the product, for newer, revised updated product, and then new releases and associated software. If Microsoft gave Vista away for free, and then charged full price for the Microsoft Office package, thats how they create demand and interest.
This model will be attacked by larger companies, and any one who wants to challenge the status quo will be destroyed, taken over or absorbed and then destroyed. The only way a company is going to fight and win, is to be prepared to go the distance, not sell-out or change its track mid-point.
Today (well it is today for me), it was announced that Microsoft are looking to buy Yahoo for an amount of money considered to be the largest amount of money ever seen in an Corporate (IT) buyout, $50bn.
Yes, you read that right, giving your work away for free is good for business.
The article was in direct relation to the DRM (Digital Rights Management), which is a method by which companies digitally watermarking their intellectual property directly to the buyer. So in this way a MP3 music track or photograph or movie that you legally obtain is then digitally encoded with your email address or data about you, so that should you copy the digital file, not only will they be able to track the person who copied the music illegally, but also prevent another person from playing that same piece of music or film on another computer.
This is a business model which has been brought to the PC world courtesy of Microsoft and its Vista operating system. DRM is nothing new, and Microsoft can't claim to be the first. In fact DRM has been around for many years, its just that there hasn't been widespread adoption of the method to control illegal sales and piracy within operating systems, and no one in their right mind would upgrade their Windows XP so that their entire movie and music collection was rendered useless?
The music industry (and to a certain extent most other digital media organisations) has had to face a massive turnaround in the way it sells its products. This has been painful, slow and very bloody, and while I should be very sorry for them, I can't but they only have themselves to blame as they have caused most of the problems, as well as being very very hostile against even genuine customers. I'll never forgive them for poisoning Metallica with their lies.
How? By not recognising earlier that their safe income was about to be blown out of the water, and that the traditional methods of making money within the industry were about to change completely. Previously ignored/unheard of methods of revenue would be thrust in our faces without regard. Whoever was in charge of product development, business development or just business strategy ought to be shot, this was something that should have been forseen years ago.
We all bought into music CDs knowing it was the medium of the future. But, sadly many years later it isnt. But this time Ive bought into DVDs knowing they are NOT the future. Not even Blu-Ray or DVD-HD will last. Technology is changing at a blisteringly fast pace.
But going back to my original point above about giving product away for free is a good business model. How does someone create an income when they are giving their product away?
Lets examine another point before I reveal the secret. If a business model for making money exists but isnt perfect, and that person does their utmost to protect that business model, then they shouldnt be surprised when someone eventually comes along with a much better business model, thereby making the old one obselete. This is happening right now, and the companies involved are doing their level best to destroy these models. You need only look at internet radio, and sites like www.pandora.com, which is actually doing more for the music industry than the music industry.
DRM is a terrible method of controlling sales, it bites hard against the typical consumer, treating them as a pirate, and a thief before they even enter their credit card details online to purchase a track. I wont lie and say getting hold of illegal music is easy, but its much easier that getting music legally at times. You download a peer-to-peer file sharing program select the music you want and away you go.
An efficient model will come to replace the current way of selling music, and another model will follow that once that no longer becomes efficient. So how do you make money by giving your product away for free? If Microsoft gave away Vista for free, they would never make a penny on it. Yet they sell it for £ 200 roughly, and plough millions into advertising. I wonder how much they spend on advertising compared to actual sales. In this instance I'd imagine they are in for the longhaul, that they are expecting sales many years from now. They or indeed anyone would make money by creating a buzz, a demand for the product, for newer, revised updated product, and then new releases and associated software. If Microsoft gave Vista away for free, and then charged full price for the Microsoft Office package, thats how they create demand and interest.
This model will be attacked by larger companies, and any one who wants to challenge the status quo will be destroyed, taken over or absorbed and then destroyed. The only way a company is going to fight and win, is to be prepared to go the distance, not sell-out or change its track mid-point.
Today (well it is today for me), it was announced that Microsoft are looking to buy Yahoo for an amount of money considered to be the largest amount of money ever seen in an Corporate (IT) buyout, $50bn.
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