Free as in Free Music

I got hooked on to P2P during my days at IIT. Having spent 200 bucks per cassette thus far, the concept of free music just changed my world. P2P downloads heralded an all new era in music consumption and created a consumer base which never existed; a set of consumers looking for free music.

This consumer base actually consists of three segments depending on how one defines Free Music.

Free as in Freedom
Consumers want freedom. A single source (P2P service: subscription or free, subscription service) providing access to all types of music would serve as a one-stop destination satisfying every need of theirs. This is why the subscription services organized around labels fail to attract these consumers since their offerings are likely to be incomplete and restricted by label contracts.
Freedom would also involve compatibility with any machine. Hence, a player supporting only proprietary file formats wouldn’t go down well with them.

Free as in Free Lunch
There is a segment of consumers with low band loyalty which would go for any type of music as long as it is free. They would prove to be a consumer base even in a scenario where all copyrighted music was paid as long as the freely available music was a representative sample of all music.

A combination of the two
And that is where all the audience is; the bulk of the so called Napster Diaspora.