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)

something to make you think about what if

excellent job well done awesome pretty special top notch reading the world could be a better place.

Brilliant explanation for things we get free

Liked the way it is said there is a business idea behind everything that is given away free!

very interesting

Unique view of digital versus atoms that I had never considered. I was engaged and found it very easy to follow.

Gratis!

If you were wondering about the explosion of free (gratis) goods and services in the world today, this book will walk you through it. Although many of the concepts in this book are familiar, the completeness of the discussion makes this a worthwhile listen!

Pretty

Entertaining and educational I may have listened to this book too meany times more then 8 times

There are unknown knowns & known unknowns $$$$$$$$

What did you love best about FREE?

Author was a pleasure to hear and content was very useful

Any additional comments?

It's a free book but shouldn't be. It is well worth any price. This book will change how you see everything from how grocery stores advertise to the annoying automated prompt that ask you about upgrading before you can hear a human voice when all you want to do is talk to tech support about a none functioning product.

Great counter perspective

The only issue with this book is that it really doesn’t age well. There are so many references that it is abundantly clear it was written 10+ years ago. This doesn’t take away from the key message though, and I would absolutely recommend listening.

Great Book

I listened to this 3 times already, I just keep getting more out of it. I will buy other books by this author!

I liked this book

I liked this book it explains a lot about free and what to expect about it

Very informattive and well done.

The range the concept of free, presented in this book, is daunting. it is astonishingly wide.

Of importance too, is it is becoming socially significant.

I think it will bump up against the ultimate scarcity - user's time and attention. There will be a plateau.

Then it will be a game of, get the attention of the Beast. The Beast is you and your time needed to pay attention.

The Free society will soon have to deal with that and it will be a matter of attention. My opinion.

I highly recommend this book. It is VERY informative.