Freemium Blog

Techno brava is genre of music that is very popular in Brazil. It not only has distinguished sounds but also has a unique business model. CDs of the music are given for free to street vendors who distribute at very low mark up. In this way the original creator of the music does not get anything from the actual copy. Their revenue is generated from sound system parties. Free: The music on the CD (not entirely free but very close) Premium: Parties Recording of the live music from the ... Read More

Jonathan is a computer programmer turned musician who decided to record and release a new song every week for a year. All the songs were made freely available using the Creative Commons License. He generates revenue from the sale of iTunes downloads and CDs as well as merchandise, concert tickets and similar things. Free: Downloads of his music with a Creative Commons license Paid: iTunes downloads CDs Merchandise Concerts Karaoke versions of the ... Read More

John Freese is a drummer and studio musician who in 2009 released his solo album “since 1972”. While this album is not free the other products are too fun not to have them included here. Free: Actually there is nothing free (sorry about that but the paid stuff is too good to leave this example out) Paid: A range of products are available from a $7 digital download to a $75 package including a limo trip to Tijuana, signed drum set and a 5 song EP written about your life. The $250 version limited at 25 pieces and including a lunch with John ... Read More

Corey Smith is a musician that allows fans to download his music for free directly from his webpage. He makes money from selling his concert tickets and music through itunes and CD sales An interesting point to note here is that at one point they removed the free downloads from his webpage and it was noted that the sale of Itunes dropped and when the free downloads were restored the sale started to pick up again. Free: Music tracks are available from Corey’s homepage Premium: Concert tickets, CDs and ... Read More

For a period of time they allowed their fans to download a low quality version of their album “In Rainbows” freely and legally They are the ones who brought in the idea of giving music for free to their mainstream audience. Although they did not share as much as others it is quite interesting to look at the effects of this limited sharing model. Free A low or average quality MP3 was made available as download on their homepage Premium They encouraged fans to pay $5 for the download of the high quality version A conventional CD Concert and ... Read More

The album Ghosts I – IV was made available freely online and the band generated revenue from other means like selling products that ranged from $5 paid downloads to $300 super-deluxe edition download. Besides this the band also generated incremental revenue from concerts and merchandise, etc. When the album was freely available the band generated substantial revenue and according to some reliable estimates the total revenue generated was more than what they could have generated from a traditional release. Free: The entire track of 36 was ... Read More

Great video with some good points about different aspects of online ... Read More

What did they do? The best selling author allows readers to download his books for free. This started when his celebrated book ‘The Alchemist’ was selling very poorly in Russia, only around 1000 copies. It was then that he decided to put it online and within a year it sold 10,000 copies and in two years 100000 copies and in a few more years he sold several million copies of his different books. All this without any additional promotion, Mr. Coelho attributes this phenomenal success to the free availability of his books online. Free All ... Read More

Moto Boy, a Swedish musician lets you download tracks for free and sells a range of interesting products. Besides concerts, CDs and other merchandise he sells interesting items such as deluxe packages and a wind up limited edition music boxes. Free Music downloads directly from his site Paid CDs, iTunes and Concerts. As well as special products, such as deluxe packages, and a wind up music songs playing one of his ... Read More

What did they do? In the year 2008 TV and Movie director Joss Whendon created a 3 part 43 minute musical TV show. It was made on a modest budget of just over $200 which was essentially possible as all the actors and other key people worked for free with the promise to share the revenue generated. It is one of the very few of first cases where members of the traditional TV industry produced a show for free viewing on the web. Free The show online via YouTube Premium DVD, iTunes sales, and merchandise from ... Read More