Radical Move: Paying for Digital Content
A few days ago, Jason Kaneshiro (aka Webomatica) had a post looking at how digital content is becoming a commodity (e.g. blog content, music, movies) that is regarded as having little or no value.
Jason contends free is wrong because it removes the incentive for people to create quality content, and that maybe we should pay for digital content once in awhile as opposed to continually taking it for nothing. His argument included this eye-catching paragraph:
“Call me crazy, but I’m increasingly willing to pay for digital content - music, movie rentals, and software, partly due to the aformentioned “convenience factor.” I recently did my taxes with a paid software download because that was quicker than getting in the car to buy the software from a store. I didn’t pirate the software since I felt the time saved doing my taxes with it, was worth paying for.”
After a few days of letting things rumble around in my head, I came to the conclusion that Jason’s absolutely right, and that things need to change because the everything-needs-to-free movement isn’t sustainable if we’re interested in having quality digital content produced for us to consume.
With this in mind, I did something radical today: I paid for something. Yup, I forked over $1 to Mincus.code for an updated version of its Adsense Notifier plugin for Firefox, which shows your Adsense earnings in your Firefox status bar. Now, a $1 isn’t a lot of money but it’s a $1 that Mincus.code hasn’t seen before even though I’ve been using Notifier for the past year or so.
So, why did I pay $1 rather than nothing? It came down the fact the Notifier has value to me. It’s a tool that works and it provides a “convenience” because I don’t have to log into Google Adsense. For 8 cents/month, that’s terrific value.
You know, it feels pretty good to pay for something as opposed to just taking it. It’s like going to a garage sale and paying 50 cents for a coffee mug when the person would have given it to you for nothing. Fifty cents gives the mug value.
Now that I’m feeling good about pay-to-play, I might even pay $1 for a new Wordpress contact plug-in I just installed. Hell, I’d even be willing to send Evan Williams over at Twitter a few of my Paypal dollars given he’s still looking for a business plan at a time when I’m feeling particularly generous.
Technorati Tags: Free
April 17th, 2008 at 9:34 am
Open Source or free software is often my first choice for just about anything, but I recently purchased a license for FastStone Screen Capture. I’ve been using this product for years, and although it isn’t the fanciest on the market, it has all the functionality I need for day to day use. The closer on the deal was that it’s a lifetime license, so I needed worry about it again. Long story short, I don’t mind paying a small fee for a small but effective tool.
April 17th, 2008 at 9:50 am
Mark -
I absolutely appreciate the donation!
Whenever I release a new version of Adsense Notifier I am always blown away by the generosity of its users.
Thanks again!
April 17th, 2008 at 9:53 am
Allen,
You’re welcome, although $1 is, relatively speaking, not tremendously generous.
Keep up the good work!
April 17th, 2008 at 11:46 am
I’m on the fence about this. While I will pay for things I like and go buy an artist’s album to show support after I’ve heard it (however it was acquired). I don’t feel the same about software or data. What if you had to pay Google a subscription to search? Or Wordpress to get new plugins? Would they be successful? Of course not. As a user I’ll gladly show support and preach what’s good (yes, at one point I mailed 50 bucks to Dallas and prayed to get a game back after playing Doom shareware picked up by my father at a HAM radio show), but I’m not going to pay before I play. No way. Good content and applications are always rewarded.
April 17th, 2008 at 11:55 am
Greg,
Why would music be treated any different from software or data? For you to consume them, someone had to create them. It comes down to “value” and if you’re willing to pay for products/service that you use, like and want to support.
After not thinking about it much, I’ve now realized it’s a good thing to perhaps pay someone for a Wordpress plug-in if it’s something that makes your blog work better. It may be only a $1 or $2 but you’re supporting the person who made it, and maybe that will encourage them to keep improving it.
I’m not suggesting we should pay for every online service but the ones we value could be exceptions to the rule.
Mark
April 17th, 2008 at 12:45 pm
Aren’t we mixing paid software with donation based software in this thread? Isn’t what you did Mark was donate as opposed to pay, which are very distinct models? Listening to a musician play and tossing a toonie in their guitar case is entirely different from buying their cd. One makes you feel generous, the other makes you feel cornered and lacking choice.
Clay Shirkey’s recent book Here Comes Everybody has some interesting, and very related, thoughts, http://isbn.nu/978-1594201530. He argues that software is priced based on the scarcity of resources related to publishing and distributing. Now that those resources are cheap, or free, things get tricky. It really has nothing to do with the work involved in creating it.
April 17th, 2008 at 4:39 pm
One of the things that is interesting in the creation of free things is that it isn’t all about the money.
Creating something useful that thousands of people use has many other rewards and benefits. Someone adding in a donation to support is often in addition to this.