One of our developers shared an article by Techdirt entitled The Future Of Music Business Models (And Those Who Are Already There) the other day. In a nutshell, it’s an interesting look at how professional musicians can embrace the creative commons model to promote their music, then cash in by offering exclusive products and services at elevated costs. Nothing new, but it demonstrates how it’s paid off well for both reputable acts such as kings of viral NIN, to lesser known acts such as Jill Sobule.
Instead of fighting the inevitable force that has become P2P sharing which usually ends up fueling frustration with fans and costly lawsuits, these musicians have taken tabs on the commercial open source business model. Test drive the shabby version for as long as you want, or pay up to get pimped out.
FLOSS Flossin
Besides the fact that the article has way too many examples making it suitable for starving artists looking for inspiration, it demonstrates the creativity certain musicians have for marketing themselves all while embracing free sharing.
There is definitely a lesson to be learned from these musicians. Can B2C open source software be so successful in creating an innovative yet sustainable business model?
Looking forward to hearing your opinion on the subject…
Filed under: General, Trends Tags: article, business model, commercial open source, commercial software, creative commons, FLOSS, flossin, future of music, Jill Sobule, licensing, marketing, musicians, NIN, open source, open source software, P2P, pimp my ride, software, techdirt
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A very good read indeed. A tad lengthy, but essential to understand why the savage resistance of music labels and majors is pointless and destructive.
I don’t quite get the “shabby version” thing though. Your comparison reminds me much more of the shareware model than what free software has to offer.
Comment by oSoMoN — February 4, 2010 @ 09:59
We have an interesting post related to this subject – http://www.flumotion.com/blog/2009/12/16/streaming-software/is-it-possible-to-create-a-successful-business-on-top-of-free-software/
Comment by Neil — February 4, 2010 @ 13:14
@oSoMoN Sorry for going a little extreme with the term “shabby”, but perhaps that’s my more direct way of putting it as many commercial OS companies offer an “above and beyond” commercial version of their free software (thus making the free one seem shabby) – that’s my experience with B2B OS.
Comment by Vober — February 5, 2010 @ 10:52