Why the surfers are no longer buying

[RawAlex]

Free content has to be used to sell the full product. It should be somewhere between a movie trailer and a great movie review, something that encourages people to go see the product, rather than giving it to them now.

Too many of the current business models are leverages on giving the people what they want (porn, movies, music) and hoping like hell they buy something they really don't need or want (dating, hoodies, shitty t-shirts, etc). This isn't just in porn, it's in all media related businesses. Instead of acting to make piracy a non-issue, the less brilliant are suggesting that you should use it to your advantage. But when you are producing only media, it means that you have to find someone else to pay the bills, and hope you can get enough of them to make it work.

People want the content, they don't want the crap. Selling them crap will always be a very marginal business, and entirely leverages on the content that few people will have the money left to produce. Then it all falls down.

The pro-piracy idiots have had a field day this week with Gene Simmons:

hxxp://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101006/03481311310/gene-simmons-says-sue-your-fans-take-their-homes-so-why-hasn-t-he.shtml

(sorry, I hobble the link because the guy is an asshole that doesn't need to be reading this site)

Basically, they forget the simple concept: without the Kiss music, and without the Kiss brand that was developed with that music and with those record sales, there would be nothing else. The market for Kiss Krap (tm, I am sure) exists not because Gene Simmons is one of the worlds best marketers, but because it is supported by a long term underlying product, the music, the recordings. It starts somewhere. People are buying the Krap because they have been hooked by the music, the band, and the concept, not because they need Krap. Thinking that the Krap is the business and the music isn't is the first step towards failing. Gene Simmons ain't making that mistake!