FREE: The Future of a Radical Price

By: Chris Anderson

Narrated by: Chris Anderson

Length: 6 hrs and 58 mins

Publisher's summary

The New York Times best-selling author heralds the future of business in Free. In his revolutionary best seller, The Long Tail, Chris Anderson demonstrated how the online marketplace creates niche markets, allowing products and consumers to connect in a way that has never been possible before. Now, in Free, he makes the compelling case that, in many instances, businesses can profit more from giving things away than they can by charging for them.

Far more than a promotional gimmick, Free is a business strategy that may well be essential to a company's survival. The costs associated with the growing online economy are trending toward zero at an incredible rate. Never in the course of human history have the primary inputs to an industrial economy fallen in price so fast and for so long.

Just think that in 1961 a single transistor cost $10; now Intel's latest chip has two billion transistors and sells for $300 (or 0.000015 cents per transistor - effectively too cheap to price). The traditional economics of scarcity just don't apply to bandwidth, processing power, and hard-drive storage. Yet this is just one engine behind the new Free, a reality that goes beyond a marketing gimmick or a cross-subsidy.

Anderson also points to the growth of the reputation economy; explains different models for unleashing the power of Free; and shows how to compete when your competitors are giving away what you're trying to sell.

In Free, Chris Anderson explores this radical idea for the new global economy and demonstrates how this revolutionary price can be harnessed for the benefit of consumers and businesses alike.

©2009 Chris Anderson (P)2009 Hyperion

Critic reviews

"As in Anderson's previous book, the thought-provoking material is matched by a delivery that is nothing short of scintillating." ( Publishers Weekly)

Very interesting concepts invaluable for any entrepreneur

This book might be used as a reference guide on any entrepreneur's bookshelf. Ideas systematized here might be helpful in brainstorming and business model generating exercises.
Very stimulating concepts that help one think systematically about One's business.

Worth money

Though this book is free to download it would be worth purchasing.
I was surprised to find this book about free, which was free to download actual is a very interesting book I would highly recommend. Opened my eyes to how things are marketted and how I could prosper with my own products and services.

"Free"

Wow! As he teaches in this book, I actually almost didn't download this because it was free. I believed this must be a pretty bad book. how very wrong I was it was very eductional, and any author that makes reference to Richard Feynman is ok in my book or in his! lol

Fantastic and full of interesting informaton

What’s the most interesting tidbit you’ve picked up from this book?

Loaded with great ideas on how to market your "product". In my case I'm marketing involvement in a project, not selling a product. Chris's information still applies.

Very interesting!

I wasn't sure of what to expect when I started listening to this title (I have nothing to sell or give away for free), but it turned out to be a great book. The depth of information was surprising and it kept me entertained throughout. The only downside was the author reads very fast, so I had to adjust the speed. Highly recommend!

I Like Free!

This is a business book about the history about prices and our mindset about them. Being a sucker for Free (like most of us Bloggers) I thought this book would be a bit of a bore about all things...Free! But low and behold it was more than that. This book is more or less why and how the internet is building a generation of users and consumers based on Free. I'm being made into this freeloading consumer by the internet. LOL!
Chris Anderson explains the history of price and how Free has benefited several companies and backfired for others. Can you believe there are companies out there that are getting rich off of Free? Why? Basically, it is all about consumer perceptions.
I enjoyed listening to Chris Anderson narrator his book. The book has several examples of businesses and there journey towards Free and succeeding. There were several moments of the book that made me chuckle and think dang that is crazy interesting. After taking a few boring business classes, I found this book easy to understand and follow along.
After reading this I found that there are so many things I use in my daily life that are free. Or close to free. And I am not talking about air only.
This blog is on Blogger...Free!
Goodreads, Twitter, Facebook ....Free!
Firefox....Free!
Yahoo....Free!
Hulu...Free!
Pandora...Free!
And let's not forget all the apps on my iphone...Free!
I could go on and on but I think you get the picture.
If you are online and you are ok with internet lexicon than you might have a small problem with this book. But I really liked it!

Who knew Free could have such value!

This book is funny because I downloaded it because it was free thinking it must not be that good... I loved it! Great book for people looking to think differently about their industry. I love the analysis and applications. I sell real estate and this book gave me two great things. First It helped me think of how I can add value to my clients and adapt even if the market changed, and also it let me get a better understanding in the mindset of people who use technology. Great book, lots of applications. Worth much more than free!

beyond the insight of free

going from one insight and solid knowledge to another. this ended up being a shorter read than I wish it were. listen to it twice and will a third time so very much worth the time to read.and ponder

great book!

I really great book. I recommend it to any person who wants to know the real meaning of free.

An Engineer's Opinion...

A definite must read/listen for anyone in the business world today. This book offers a history of Free, solid examples of how Free can help grow your business as well as a compressive look at how the net is using free to grow at an exceptional (and exceptionally profitable) rate. Ever wonder why Google gives you things like Gmail, Google Docs, Google Voice, Gcal and so on for Free, find out why.

The downside, while it touches on how Free can be applied to what Anderson labels as "atom" businesses, it really focuses on how Free is impacting the "byte" businesses out there. Had this book attempted to take the notion one step farther and really hone in on how those of us manufacturing "atom" products in today's marketplace, the book would have been a true home run.

That being said, this business book has created a ton of buzz, yielding commentary from Malcolm Gladwell, Seth Godin, Mark Cuban and Chris Brogan. You also have to admire that Anderson takes his own advice... sure you could buy a copy at your local bookstore, but you can also download the ebook or audiobook for FREE. Like or hate the notion of free, you have to respect the fact that Chris Anderson drinks his own kool-aid!