Give it away now

What I got you gotta get it, put it in you.

Startin this one off with the musical interlude. For those that, for whatever reason, fail to remember the early 90's, that is the red hot chili peppers, prior to learning to play their intruments. I say that with some degree of affection, since I did in fact enjoy the album. I liked it so much that I eeven ordered it from Columbia House....ok truth is Reginald P. Ness Ordered it from Columbia House, but you get the point. It really is a wonder they stayed in business as long as they did, or that for some reason, Warner Bros. has decided to use the same business model again for orde4ring dvd's.

I don't want to go off on a tangent here, but.... Dear Warner Bros., your refusal to change your business model in light of new media and emerging revenue streams is the death nell of your company....that and doing movies like Cop Out. Physical media is somewhat outdated, and if like Blockbuster, you refuse to see it, you are in fact doing your shareholders a disservice. Please understand,for the next 10-15 years, people like my parents will continue to seek out old formats as that is all they know, but eventually they will be replaced by their children. Generation X eats new media and craps out diamonds....if you understand how to tap that ass.

You see, each subsequint generatrion will seek out the new media. Generation X, soon to be the dominant generation in the market place are the pioneers of internet content. Generation Y has always known the internet, and Generation Next has never lived without you tube.

We do not want your plastic earth killers, and we certainly don't give a crap about your scheduled television and your $8 popcorn. The sooner you get with the program, the sooner we will all be snug and making each other money.

Continuing to listten to Harvard MBA`s who learned from dead white guys how to do business is not the wave of the future.

X and Y were the early adopters of TiVo. They were the ones holding the camera for Steve-O. We are the ones that made lolcats and the meme a reality.

But I digress. The issue I am here to talk about is the new content, the new media, the new business model.

In a sense, it is the George Lucas school of economics. Screw the box office, show me the lunch box money! Content is shifting to free. More and more it becomes a ridiculous battle to fight it. Creative Commons is the wave of the future, and not understanding how it works, and why people are in to it is a mistake.

Think about it this way, I can either pay you 20 bucks to go see your movie, or I can watch a bunch of nobodies do someething similar for free. I can pay 50 bucks to go to a Dane Cook concert, or I can listen to a free podcast.

I can pay you 16.99 for a cd of music, or I can go to a local club, pay 5 bucks and hear the same thing.

Think of the internet as a local club. I can now interact with anyone and everyone, and I can hear their stuff.

This is no different than what was going on in the school yard. I remember clearly the day I went to school and told everyone about how cool this record of Bill Cosby was. Then I brought all my friends over to listen to it. Then we went to the local record store and bought more.

The internet is the new school yard. We are sharing the stuff we think is cool with each other. Wanting to cap that, control it and monetize it is as ridiculous as it would have been for you to send hired goons to my school to beat me up.

Content is no longer something people wish to pay for in the old fashion. We like to know what we are buying.

Here`s why.

When my friend Chris and I went to that record store, we picked up three things. A Frantics tape. A Monty Pythin Tape, and an Emo Philips tape.

To this day, I have that same Frantics material (only now it is a digital copy on my harddrive), and I can quote every single routine from the Monty Python tape.

I wish Emo physical harm.

I hated it. With a passion. I hated it so much I played it about 50 times for my parents because I knew they hated it. The only joy I got out of it was annoying people. Think of it as the original Rick Roll. Get in the car for a long drive, hand tape to parents and say, oh this is really good stuff, you are going to like it. Die of laughter.

Your product being a torture device is not a good thing. Because I wasted what little money I had on that stupid tape, I was angry. I was angry at Emo, I was angry at Capitol Records, and I have been angry ever since.

Lesson learned is, try it before you buy it. Not only that, but, why waste money on something I might like? Better to spend that money on something I know I like.

I would have rather purchased a Bill Cosby tshirt. I would have rather gone to a Bill Cosby concert than have spent the money on that Emo tape.

You jaded me. And now you want to take away my opurtunity to test drive my entertainment. I think not.

People can get content in any number of ways. Your decision to limit content, rather than understanding the new way to mentize.

Here are some great examples from people who have harnassed the power of the new media.

Kevin Smith and the smodcast network.

They provide a plethora of greta entertainment for free. They also provide some entertainment, bonus stuff for pay. You want more of this, go buy something from one of our advertisers and you get a free bonus podcast. They have show sponsors. They do a two or three minute commercial at the begining of the show, and then that's it. If I want the extras, I have to pay. It is a good system. TRhey also made a live venue where you can pay to watch them record the podcasts. I am not sure if it is working out for him, but it is a great idea, and something that should be encouragedd to more people. I would pay to go, if I lived in the area. I also pay for all sorts of Smith mechandise.

Wil Wheaton. The Wheaton gives free samples of his work. Like what you hear? Go buy it. Again, he provides extras for his paying customers, but does not screw over how audience in the process. The beauty of this system is that if I don't think I am going to like it, I don't have to buy it. I am still a Wil Wheaton fan, and in the future, if he puts out something I do like, I will buy it. Had I purchased something from him, not liked, I would most likely never interact with him again. How much money do you think I spent on Emo after that first album? What you want is a free pass to put out shit content, force me to purchase it, and then pcket the money. I never ever ever again want to walk out of a theatre, having spent nearly 30 bucks saying, "wow, that sucked." No one but the makers of crap want that.

Felicia Day. Felicia is the producer of the ground breaking show The Guild. This is a web based program. It is free to watch. Now that I have money, I fully intend to purchase some guild swag. I like what I see and I want more of it, so please, let me know how to get more. One of the ways they monetize is by getting sponsors. These sponsors get a short commercial at the begining of an episode and a wackload of banner ads.

Chris Hardwick of G4. This guy produces a weekly podcast. It is funny...called the Nerdist podcast btw, and see what he does is gives me this really cool thing for free, then promotes his live shows....which cost money. I would go to one of those shows, if they were anywhere near me. I would gladly go because I know I am going to like it.

So many times I have been burned by crap I just haven't liked. I harken back to the name of one of my favourite albums. NOFX, I heard they suck live. Because I knwo they do not, I will pay to see them. I will not pay to see other crap live. Just not going to happen.

You want to know why I gave away my tv and refuse to pay for cable? Because I don't feel it is worth the money.

I have reached my threshold of what I am willing to pay for, and the crap you make me watch isn't worth it. Give me good entertainment and I will sit through a commercial every 10 minutes....1 damn commercial mind you, not 5 minutes of them. When did commercials become the content? You understand that the instant the commercials became better than the shows was the instant most people with a brain tuned out right?

You want to make money, you need to follow the trend, not fight it tooth and nail. You need to be reminded of the fact that people are willing to pay for that which they deem worth it.

The crap you feed us is not worth paying for. You have two options. Make better stuff or have me arrested for downloading it. You can find a way to make money off me. I am not that hard to find, and lord knows my wallet doesn't require hacking to get in to.

It requires ingenuity. It requires creativity, and most of all it requires entertaining me. There is a vast difference between filling an empty hole in space time and providing a valuable product or service.

If the choice is between watching CSI Moose Jaw and listening to Smodcast, guess what I am going to do? If the choice is between free chance I might like something and 30 dollar chance, I am going to choose free chance every damn time.

Think of it this way, when you are playing monopoly and you land on chance, the banker doesn't charge you 50 bucks to pick upm the chance card, you just pick it up.

Want me to pay for something? Make sure I am going to like it. Or, do like the drug dealers do, hey, if you liked that you need to try this, or you need to pay for the extra bump. A free show once a week might be worth my entertainment dollars....in the form of merchandising, concerts, donations, advertising dollars spent.

What are you afraid of?

Having to actually make something worth the money we spend on it?









Ok, so this was supposed to be me bitching about people bitching about people who bitch about free stuff, but I got rolling and couldn't stop. Before congress in the United States is a bill that would seriously regulate content on the internet. It would allow copyright holders to permanantly delete websites from the internetwhen the content is counter to their business interests. This is a huge mistake. It takes content management out of the hands of consumers and gives it to producers. This is exactly what happened to television. When faced with certain choices, we can't help but take the lesser of two evils. We settle for inferior because the choice is between unwatchable and mediocre.

Rather than define content narrowly, we need to redefine what consumer means. So many people are coming up with ways to monetize their content without compromising it, or the consumer's access to it. Perhaps we should allow progress, rather than allow people with outdated modes of doing things to control how the future unfolds.

On demand, file sharing, podcasting, blogging and all the other web based content is not a fad. Nature finds a way, it always does, and our nature is to share and be likedd by our peers. You can force it underground if you want, but it is not going away.