For my research question, i have decided to go with the ones John Wetherall from Onteca provided us with; What
new models are there for selling media? When people download so much
media freely, what are people willing to pay for and how? What are the
best monetization mechanics for Freemium games on mobile?
For the first question i did a little research on what new models have emerged for selling media and the main ones i found are used by millions of people across the world. When users first started downloading music, the easiest way to acquire music was illegally - however it wasn't that people necessarily didn't want to pay for a product but they developed the habit of not paying - so when programs such as iTunes came along people could easily get hold of music and not feel bad about it.
iTunes provider Apple makes approximately $600,000 a year with store sales of 500,000 a week, showing a relatively high success rate of music downloads. A quote from Apple's website clearly gives the customer an idea of what they can find at the iTunes store 'What’s on the iTunes Store? You name it. You’ll find millions of songs from just about any artist, album, or genre you can think of. Browse thousands of movies to buy or rent. Keep up with your favorite TV shows in standard and high definition. Browse over 700,000 apps and games.* Discover more than 225,000 free audio and video podcasts.* '
This statement clearly outlines the fact that Apple provide a service where their users can freely browse the store, like any other online shopping website and entices them into a service where you have to pay a small fee of around £2.50 per song or film for good quality. Some users haven't always been used to the idea of downloading music on a regular basis as the radio was the only form of music at one point therefore iTunes acts more as a fun and interactive experience for the consumer.
In answer to the question 'When people download so much media freely, what are people willing to pay for and how?' i looked at Mike Walsh's book, Futuretainment in which he outlined a very signifcant statement saying 'In a world where you can get any piece of content for free, media companies will no longer be able to rely on walled gardens for survival. Instead aggregators of the future will create value by understanding the individual preferences of customers and creating personalized slices of entertainment for them'. (Walsh, 2009) This clearly indicates the simple fact that users are really only willing to invest time into content that is free to access and media companies will have to be more specific when targeting audiences in order for them to make money.
The younger generation especially, have been grown up in a digital age in which entertainment is available, anywhere, anytime and on any device, according to Walsh, and for this reason, users are more likely to be encouraged to access content freely as there is a way. However, if we diverge from this idea, we can say that the older generation may be more willing to pay for content as they grew up in a age where they were basically forced to watch, listen and read any content they were given. So in a sense they are more used to the idea of 'sticking by the rules'.
Looking at programs such as Spotify, a Swedish born music streaming service, consumers are given a choice of whether they want to pay and have more access to more music, or
access music for free with limitations such as only having access to 10 hours of music per month. Giving users the choice of paying or having limited access with more annoyances such as adverts and pop-ups, they might be more willing to pay a small fee to get the most out of the online service as they can access a lot more content which in turn proves Spotify to be a successful new model in selling media.
For the first question i did a little research on what new models have emerged for selling media and the main ones i found are used by millions of people across the world. When users first started downloading music, the easiest way to acquire music was illegally - however it wasn't that people necessarily didn't want to pay for a product but they developed the habit of not paying - so when programs such as iTunes came along people could easily get hold of music and not feel bad about it.
iTunes provider Apple makes approximately $600,000 a year with store sales of 500,000 a week, showing a relatively high success rate of music downloads. A quote from Apple's website clearly gives the customer an idea of what they can find at the iTunes store 'What’s on the iTunes Store? You name it. You’ll find millions of songs from just about any artist, album, or genre you can think of. Browse thousands of movies to buy or rent. Keep up with your favorite TV shows in standard and high definition. Browse over 700,000 apps and games.* Discover more than 225,000 free audio and video podcasts.* '
This statement clearly outlines the fact that Apple provide a service where their users can freely browse the store, like any other online shopping website and entices them into a service where you have to pay a small fee of around £2.50 per song or film for good quality. Some users haven't always been used to the idea of downloading music on a regular basis as the radio was the only form of music at one point therefore iTunes acts more as a fun and interactive experience for the consumer.
In answer to the question 'When people download so much media freely, what are people willing to pay for and how?' i looked at Mike Walsh's book, Futuretainment in which he outlined a very signifcant statement saying 'In a world where you can get any piece of content for free, media companies will no longer be able to rely on walled gardens for survival. Instead aggregators of the future will create value by understanding the individual preferences of customers and creating personalized slices of entertainment for them'. (Walsh, 2009) This clearly indicates the simple fact that users are really only willing to invest time into content that is free to access and media companies will have to be more specific when targeting audiences in order for them to make money.
The younger generation especially, have been grown up in a digital age in which entertainment is available, anywhere, anytime and on any device, according to Walsh, and for this reason, users are more likely to be encouraged to access content freely as there is a way. However, if we diverge from this idea, we can say that the older generation may be more willing to pay for content as they grew up in a age where they were basically forced to watch, listen and read any content they were given. So in a sense they are more used to the idea of 'sticking by the rules'.
Looking at programs such as Spotify, a Swedish born music streaming service, consumers are given a choice of whether they want to pay and have more access to more music, or
access music for free with limitations such as only having access to 10 hours of music per month. Giving users the choice of paying or having limited access with more annoyances such as adverts and pop-ups, they might be more willing to pay a small fee to get the most out of the online service as they can access a lot more content which in turn proves Spotify to be a successful new model in selling media.
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