Categories: Articles

The Problem With Free

If you got everything for free, do you think you think you would feel the same way about it as if you had paid for it?

Here’s a personal anecdote: for close to 15 years I was a freelance journalist in the music industry. Along with interviewing musicians and attending concerts, my gig also involved reviewing CDs (and for a time, it was mostly vinyl and cassettes). Over the course of that career, I had accumulated close to 20,000 CDs. Almost everything that the major, minor and indie labels released was dropped in my mailbox multiple times every week. From new releases to boxed sets, compilations and re-releases of entire collections. If you love music (like I do), that’s a pretty sweet ride, but with it came a very interesting understanding of the value of free. Prior to this work, I was a music fan too. I would hear about a band working on a new album and would wait with bated breath for the release. Sometimes, I would wait in line on the day of the release and fork over my hard-earned money to hear what artistic majesty they had created. Then, when suddenly everything that comes out is being sent to me for free (sometimes even pre-release date as an advance), you start to lose perspective.

When you pay for something, you appreciate it more than when you get it for free.

That may sound counterintuitive, but it’s true. When I would wait for a band to release their new album, then wait in line for a few hours to get it, pay for it, and then finally get home to listen to it, it was hard to dislike it (even it wasn’t so great). The main reason is that you would feel a little stupid inside, and nobody wants to feel stupid, so we tend to look for the good in it (especially when we paid for it). It’s also one of the main reasons why people get so vocal when it comes to reading negative reviews of bands they like. It’s important to remember that most reviewers get their music for free (and tons of it), so they have no vested personal emotion in it.

Free is more disposable.

Mike Lipkin is a great motivational speaker, and one of my favourite lines from him that he uses onstage is: "I would do this for free, but I am going to make you pay for it so that you appreciate what you’re getting." TouchÃ©. So, yes free is a great marketing strategy to drive interest and intent (for more on this, be sure to check out Chris Anderson‘s book, Free – The Future of a Radical Price), but it’s not a long-term strategy to develop real relationships with your customers. The music, newspaper, publishing and movie industry is learning about this the hard way.

The bigger challenge is going to be in finding a consumer base that digs deep enough to understand that in a world where everything is free, there is also plenty of ambiguity and lack of loyalty.

Mitch Joel

Mitch Joel lives at the intersection of technology, business transformation and consumer culture. He is the Executive Director of Next Era Institute, a strategic intelligence platform helping leaders understand the forces reshaping business, technology, culture and society. The Institute identifies which shifts matter, explores their wider significance and translates them into strategic direction and momentum. Mitch is also a globally recognized keynote speaker. He has delivered thousands of presentations across both B2B and B2C industries to organizations including Google, Walmart, LEGO, Shopify, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble and Unilever. Strategy Magazine has called him “one of North America’s leading visionaries.” Mitch built his career by working directly inside the waves of change that reshaped modern business. He founded and built a digital marketing agency that worked with some of the world’s largest brands and was later acquired by WPP, where he served as President of a firm operating in 25 countries with almost 3,000 employees. Mitch is the bestselling author of Six Pixels of Separation and CTRL ALT Delete, and the host of Thinking With Mitch Joel, one of the longest-running business podcasts in the world. His writing and commentary appear in outlets including Harvard Business Review, Fast Company and Inc. Magazine. He is a member of Dr. Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches and was named to the Thinkers50 Radar. Mitch also hosts Groove – The No Treble Podcast, documenting the oral history of electric bass players. Mitch is also Co-Founder of ThinkersOne, a platform that enables companies to bring personalized thought leadership from world-class experts into meetings, events and off-sites in focused 15-minute bursts.