I’m not the biggest fan of survey research, as I find that it most often (of necessity) uses leading questions. When I review survey data, I often wonder if respondents would ever think or formulate some of the statements which they are asked in these surveys.
Gen We is a study of Generation Y, and it offers some interesting insights interspersed with commentary which wanders between the inspirational and the utopian. The scientist has clearly fallen in love with his subject. It tends towards the leading variety of research, but it’s balanced with first person, one-on-one conversations that ask more open ended questions. Although, I do wish it offered other generations responses to the same questions for comparison.
What I find particularly remarkable is that the authors have placed the entire contents of the book in a free, downloadable PDF on their website. I almost purchased the book on Amazon (for $19.98) after having read an interview with the two authors. But right before adding the book to my shopping cart, I googled their names, which led me to their website, www.gen-we.com.
It’s an interesting moment in media, because many content creators (musicians, writers, etc.) seem to be willing to offer free or pay-what-you-want facsimiles of their work as a marketing tool for other, typically higher quality versions of their work.
Should those of us in digital be concerned that our creations might be valued less than their “real world” counterparts? The jury’s still out, but I’d argue that we should be somewhat concerned about this perception…
On October 7th of last year, the British rock group Radiohead garnered tremendous press attention when they released their latest album “In Rainbows” as a mid-quality MP3 for whatever price people were willing to pay. Fans swarmed to download the album, many paying, but approximately one-third paying nothing.
Some months later, the band struck deals with a variety of different labels in different territories to release a CD version of the album, which had bonus tracks and better sound. In the US, the CD version of the album sold over 120,000 copies in its first week, no small feat, especially given the earlier MP3 release coupled with the decline in CD sales. We soon heard that other artists – including Oasis and Girl Talk among many others – were considering a similar business model.
I’m unsure if Generation We’s authors and publisher meant to emulate the “Radiohead model”, but their actions do speak to the emergence of a new model of sharing, marketing and selling content. It also speaks to a belief and hope that people are willing to pay, out of appreciation and justice, for something which can be had, more or less, for free. Finally, it implies the enhanced value of the physical item (book, CD, newspaper, etc.) over its digital facsimile.
For what it’s worth, I paid 15 pounds for the Radiohead download, and I’m happy to report it was money well spent, even though I wasn’t required to spend it.
Jonathan Cohen
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Hi Jonathan
Great post all around. As a member of Gen We I can say I would personally pay for something. As long as I’m getting value from it.
The report is quite heavy but I’m going to try and read it cover to cover none the less. Would you consider buying the book after reading the free PDF?
P.S. Your first and third links are broken for me.
Jonathan, thoughtful post. With Radiohead, tho, isn’t their music, a core creative asset, the lure for touring, their primary revenue stream? This is what the MySpace generation of artists, like Swati (my personal fav) are discovering…share the music, attract the concert-goer, then sell the CD.
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Did the folks who wrote the book have a research or consulting biz the book promotes? It seems even fiction authors are uinge free downloads to stimulate sales of a new release (or the backlist).
As a writer, I’m a strong believer in artists’ rights, but am excited at the opportunities to expose work in ever-increasing channels and look for interesting, innovative ways to profit from them (as a Gen X-er, I wonder, is “profit” a dirty word to Gen Y?
–Susan
First, thank you both for reading the posting and commenting.
To Duane’s question, I probably wouldn’t ordinarily purchase the book after reading it for free online. However, for certain reports, especially those which are quite long and that I will frequently reference, I like to have hard copies. This is one of those. I suppose I could print it out on a color copier, but I think the quality of the published book will be nicer.
Susan-Re: Radiohead using music as a means to promote their more lucrative income streams, I think you are (probably) right. They most likely still earn pretty significant income for music sales (and publishing royalties), but I don’t know for sure. I have read that for massive acts such as the Eagles, their recorded music income, which is pretty significant, is dwarfed by their touring.
You might also be aware that Prince negotiated a deal with the Daily Mail to give away his “Planet Earth” CD. He was apparently paid 250K British pounds, but it served to promote month long concert series at a London arena, the O2.
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070717-princes-cd-giveaway-another-nail-in-the-albums-coffin.html
I think it’s an exciting time to be an artist (author, musician, comedian, clown or all of the above), given the possibility of directly connecting with, and distributing to, an audience…anywhere and at any time.
That being said, I still do fear that ‘free’ in this case comes with a cost. I do not know how this will ultimately resolve itself, but I think we should be careful to make sure we consider how artists and content owners will derive income from digital manifestations of their work.
First, thank you both for reading the posting and commenting.
To Duane’s question, I probably wouldn’t ordinarily purchase the book after reading it for free online. However, for certain reports, especially those which are quite long and that I will frequently reference, I like to have hard copies. This is one of those. I suppose I could print it out on a color copier, but I think the quality of the published book will be nicer.
Susan-Re: Radiohead using music as a means to promote their more lucrative income streams, I think you are (probably) right. They most likely still earn pretty significant income for music sales (and publishing royalties), but I don’t know for sure. I have read that for massive acts such as the Eagles, their recorded music income, which is pretty significant, is dwarfed by their touring.
You might also be aware that Prince negotiated a deal with the Daily Mail to give away his “Planet Earth” CD. He was apparently paid 250K British pounds, but it served to promote month long concert series at a London arena, the O2.
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070717-princes-cd-giveaway-another-nail-in-the-albums-coffin.html
I think it’s an exciting time to be an artist (author, musician, comedian, clown or all of the above), given the possibility of directly connecting with, and distributing to, an audience…anywhere and at any time.
That being said, I still do fear that ‘free’ in this case comes with a cost. I do not know how this will ultimately resolve itself, but I think we should be careful to make sure we consider how artists and content owners will derive income from digital manifestations of their work.