2. Kelly’s Idea
Kelly suggests that, in an environment when
almost anything can be copied and made
worthless, anything that cannot be copied
becomes scarce and therefore valuable.
3. Kelly believes there are Eight uncopyable
values or ‘generatives’ that can be combined
or used singularly, in order to make someone
want to pay for a product or service rather
obtaining it for free.
KEVIN KELLY
4. Accessibility
In paid-for products an individual is given the ability to store
the product wherever they want.This enables them to access
it securely whenever and usually in a pretty tidy way. In
contrast a free product that may be illegally downloaded
would have to be backed up, saved, stored, moved around
etc..And this will get very boring.
An example could be Spotify – they allow all your music to be
stored in one easy simple place online or offline.
5. Number of subscribers to Spotify
The service had approximately ten million users as of
15 September 2010, about 2.5 million of whom were paying
members.Total users reached 20 million by December 2012,
five million of whom pay a monthly subscription fee that
varies based on locale.
6. Authenticity
Consumers are able to grab key software applications for
free, but even if they don't need a manual, they might like to
be sure it is bug free, reliable, and warranted.
When products are bought directly from a band then this is
ensured.The paid-for items will come with an assurance of
validity and often extra items such as a signature from
perhaps a band to give extra authenticity.
iTunes is an example of a reliable source for paid-for songs
that often offer live performances and exclusive tracks from
certain artists.
7. Number of ‘subscribers’ for iTunes
Last year iTunes reached an estimate of around 20 million
monthly visits and payments and in 2008 iTunes reached a
staggering figure of 5 billion total downloads on their site.
8. AUTHENTICITY
Given the multitude of fake copies on the internet, anything that has
actual value is often copied. A copy has a few flaws that an original
authentic version would not have, an example of this is pirated
software. When looking for software some people will choose an
authentic version because with authenticity comes bonuses such as
tech support and bug fixes which you may not get with a pirated
version. Whilst the software itself is free, if it is not authentic it loses it’s
value, therefore the value is not in the software, but the authenticity.
Another example is within’ the music industry, when many copies of
albums are released to pirate websites, these files can be copied
incorrectly and contain the wrong formatting. This is normally proven
when the pirated music files are played on stereos and the instruments
do not pan correctly to the different outsources.
9. Authenticity…
The difference between paying for a product and illegally
downloading is its quality/authenticity. For example illegally
downloading a film will usually be pixelated and out of sync with
the sound however subscribing to a movie channel or music app
will guarantee the authenticity and quality of the product.
A product example we can use is Spotify which is an online music
streaming app which has three membership programs the first is
free but it gives you a limited amount of time each week and you
will have adverts in-between every couple of songs played, a £5.99
subscription which removes the adverts and lets you stream spotify
on your phone and then a £10.00 subscription which means you can
do everything in the premium subscription and also stream music
even when you’re not connected to the internet and also get to
listen to albums early before anyone else.
10. FINDABILITY
• Netflix – Categorizes by genre, popularity, release date etc
• Cookies on websites allow relevant material that is to your interest to
appear first.
11. Immediacy…
Immediacy is how quick you can access something such as
Netflix which offers you to stream TV shows and movies
instantly for £6.99 a month and you can do this
immediately whereas if you illegally download a movie it
could take ages for it to download and after download
there could be troubles with the footage such as bad
quality and sound errors.
People who illegally download music on websites, for
example youtube2mp3 you will experience bad quality
sound and it could take a while for it to download
whereas if you buy a song of ITunes this will only take
seconds and you will get a better quality and you will get
the album artwork and information on the song.
12. PATRONAGE
• Kelly believed that the customers want to pay for the content
they are getting. He said they wanted to pay the creators. But
the customers will only pay for the content if it is easy to get and
they can quickly download it, it will also need to be a decent
price that is not to much or the customer will look else where for
the music. The band Radiohead allow people to download their
music for free and the listeners can donate money towards the
band. They recommend $5 a download but they do not have this
as a fixed price.
13. Patronage
It is my belief that audiences WANT to pay creators. Fans like to reward artists, musicians, authors
and the like with the tokens of their appreciation, because it allows them to connect. But they
will only pay if it is very easy to do, a reasonable amount, and they feel certain the money will
directly benefit the creators. Radiohead's recent high-profile experiment in letting fans pay them
whatever they wished for a free copy is an excellent illustration of the power of patronage. The
elusive, intangible connection that flows between appreciative fans and the artist is worth
something. In Radiohead's case it was about $5 per download. There are many other examples of
the audience paying simply because it feels good.
What this means, is that we are more likely to pay for a product If we know it’s going straight to
the creator or the artist, if it’s benefitting them rather than a record company or a manager for
example. People will sometimes believe that the artist is deserving of the money they make and
through appreciation of the artist and as a mark of respect people will choose to pay for what
they can get for free, not because that’s the only way to get the product but because they believe
the artist deserves it therefore the value goes above and beyond what the track itself is worth.
Another example of this would be faith to a particular brand such as a Windows user choosing to
buy a package of software from Microsoft, rather than downloading it because they appreciate
the effort that has gone into writing the software and are therefore willing to pay the
programmers.
14. Personalization
A generic version of a concert recording may be free, but if you want a copy that has been
tweaked to sound perfect in your particular living room, as if it were preformed in your room, you
may be willing to pay a lot. The free copy of a book can be custom edited by the publishers to
reflect your own previous reading background. A free movie you buy may be cut to reflect the
rating you desire (no violence, dirty language okay). Aspirin is free, but aspirin tailored to your
DNA is very expensive. As many have noted, personalization requires an ongoing conversation
between the creator and consumer, artist and fan, producer and user. It is deeply generative
because it is iterative and time consuming. You can't copy the personalization that a relationship
represents. Marketers call that "stickiness" because it means both sides of the relationship are
stuck (invested) in this generative asset, and will be reluctant to switch and start over.
What this means, is that Kelly believes that, due to personalisation not being able to be copied.
Images and artwork, for example, can be easily found for free with as little effort as just googling
a vague description of what it is that you want. However, for custom artwork that is personal to
your needs, this cannot be copied, and therefore has value through its exclusivity due to the
customer’s individuality. A further example of this is the value of a CD would increase if it was
signed by the artist and addressed to you, the value of the cd isn’t on the music but the
personalization and the time of the artist.
15. PERSONALIZATION
• Personalisation can influence a person to buy a product/service
or a membership for a website etc. For example, aspirin is free
but aspirin that is tailored to your DNA can cost a great deal. It
requires an ongoing conversation between the consumer and
the creator, the fan and the artist or the producer and the user.
The relationship that is represented through personalization
cannot be copied. It can keep people invested in the same
membership/ site etc. because they will be more reluctant to
switch and start over, this is what marketers call ‘stickiness’.
16. EVALUATION OF KELLY'S IDEAS.
• As a group we have decided that Kelly's idea is effective as
does account for the majority of the reasons as to why people
legally obtain media over the web, however there are some
other reasons.
• The main reason we feel that Kelly has not discussed in his
article is the fact that some people may want to pay for media
as they feel it is the morally correct thing to do, as they are
against stealing and illegal actives.
