Knowing Your Business Model, Part 1

Hey, lookee here … free markets work for everybody:

In the interview, former Talking Heads singer David Byrne and Radiohead front man Thom Yorke talk about the economics of digital music and how the Internet changes the way bands make money. One takeaway with broader implications for any business: Yorke and Byrne say that with the rise of the Internet and digital distribution of their products – i.e. the music they make – aren’t what make them money, anymore. Instead they use the music as a marketing tool and make money through licensing deals, concerts and the like.

Incidentally, Yorke addresses the issue of the name-your-own price release head on: “In terms of digital income, we’ve made more money out of this record than out of all the other Radiohead albums put together, forever — in terms of anything on the Net,” he says.

So the record companies spent how much money, and prosecuted how many people, trying to protect content best used as a marketing tool?

HA!