New Model Army (or, Who Doesn’t Love Free Stuff?)

The beginning of the end? Or the end of the beginning? (Image via CrunchBase)

I love free stuff!

I can get free comics on Free Comic Book Day. I can get free gaming stuff on Free RPG Day. My arms are still recovering from lifting all of the free swag from Comic-Con. I love listening to all of the free music on the internet (legal or otherwise). I love watching free videos and movies online (thanks, YouTube, Hulu, Vimeo, etc.!).

And there are a lot of people, especially younger folks, who love getting illegal copies of stuff for free online: music, movies, comics, books, you name it. What can be done about it? Honestly, not much: it’s just a giant game of whack-a-mole, and there are too many easy ways for people to disguise their IP addresses so they don’t get caught.

So how does an artist make money in this brave new world of Free-dom? Girl Talk gives away his albums, but makes money off of performing. But not everyone is that well-known (or talented)…

And, more importantly, how can artists make a living when everyone is getting their entertainment for free? We all have only so much time in the day for entertainment, and only so much money to spend on it (especially in this economy) – so what incentive is there to spend more when you can spend nothing?

On a personal note, I’m going to be publishing my own work soon: but how do I know anyone’s going to pay for it?

Do we need a New Business Model… or is the answer that everyone needs their own, unique business model?

Any ideas, readers?

Related articles

• All Day (alldaycomics.com)
• …and Cheap Stuff (alldaycomics.com)
• Lots o’ Links (9/14/11): More Free Comics & Books, Gnatrat, and Nerds (alldaycomics.com)
• Tapping Your Inner Freeloader: 11 Tried and True Tips to Get Things Free (turbotax.intuit.com)
• New Model Army (or, Who Doesn’t Love Free Stuff?) (alldaycomics.com)