As music publishing companies have discovered, the Internet is interrupting conventional ways of making money and doing business. According to Kevin Kelly in a ChangeThis Manifesto entitled “Beyond Free”, the Internet is a giant copy machine and the copies which it makes are free. To make money under the new rules, you have to be able to sell things which cannot be copied. Kelly lists eight categories of things which he calls “generatives”, which can be sold.
Immediacy: people are willing to pay to get something as soon as it is released, even if it will be cheaper or free at a later date. Personalisation: people will pay for something which is particularly suited to them. Interpretation: users of free software are willing to pay for services which help them to use it. Authenticity: it is worth paying to ensure that an item is the real thing. Accessibility: people will pay someone who make the information they need easy to access. Embodiment: people will pay for a live performance. Patronage: people will voluntarily donate to creators. Findability: people will pay someone who can find the information they are looking for.
Unfortunately, none of these new ways of making money looks quite as attractive as the old Microsoft model of creating a product which everybody needs, creating copies at almost zero incremental cost, and selling those copies for high prices. In the new world order, the consumer will not be forced into paying for something; instead the consumer will be in a position of deciding how much to pay based on convenience.