Free Ride: How the Internet Is Destroying the Culture Business and How the Culture Business Can Fight Back

Robert Levine

ISBN 10: 1847921493 / ISBN 13: 9781847921499

Published by The Bodley Head, 2011

About this Item

Leichte Kratzer / Abnutzungen / Druckstellen. Information is both valuable and increasingly accessible, creating a tension in how it is consumed. Stewart Brand's insight from a 1984 hacker convention captures this duality, highlighting the conflict between the desire for expensive, valuable information and the growing expectation for free access. This struggle has transformed our cultural landscape, as traditional media--newspapers, music, television, films, and books--face relentless disruption from digital platforms. The demand for free online content has forced media businesses to adapt, often at the expense of their profitability. The Internet's current structure enables technology companies to offer content at no cost, leveraging copyrighted material to attract vast audiences. For instance, MySpace built a user base larger than many European countries by allowing music streaming, ultimately selling for $580 million. This raises critical questions about the future of cultural businesses: Are we witnessing chaos and cultural decline? This guide explores the evolving global marketplace, examining our present situation, the historical context, and the necessary steps to prevent a cultural crisis.

Seller Inventory # b6fa082b-f972-42a9-a371-f2ea3f343b19

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Free Ride: How the Internet Is Destroying the Culture Business and How the Culture Business Can Fight Back
• Publisher: The Bodley Head
• Publication Date: 2011
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1847921493
• ISBN 13: 9781847921499
• Binding: Softcover
• Condition: As New
• Seller catalogs:
  • Economics

About this title

Synopsis

On the one hand information wants to be expensive because it's so valuable. The right information in the right place just changes your life. On the other hand, information wants to be free, because the cost of getting it out is getting lower and lower all the time. So you have these two fighting against each other.'So said the influential technologist Stewart Brand at a 1984 hacker convention. Not only did his words evolve into a media business mantra that has shaped the internet as we know it today but the conflict which he predicted has led to a revolution in the way that our culture is disseminated and consumed. Over the last decade the traditional media - newspapers, music, television, films and books - have been systematically ransacked by digital organisations. Every media business has had to contend with the growing consumer demand for free online content. As it is currently configured, both technically and legally, the Internet allows technology companies to reduce the price of content to zero by letting them build businesses with content copyrighted by others. It's a very effective way to draw an audience. MySpace attracted a user base larger than the population of most European countries, in part by letting its audience stream music, then sold itself to News Corporation for $580 million. But what are the consequences for cultural businesses? Is the result simply mayhem and inevitable cultural impoverishment? Free Ride is the essential guide to a global marketplace in transition: where we are, how we got here and what we have to do to avoid cultural meltdown.

About the Author

Robert Levine was the executive editor of Billboard and has written for Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, and the arts and business sections of the New York Times. Before that, he was a features editor at New York magazine and Wired. He holds a B.A. in politics from Brandeis and an M.S.J.from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism. He now covers the culture business from New York and Berlin. Free Ride is his first book.