Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

What happens when advances in technology allow many things to be produced for more or less nothing? And what happens when those things are then made available to the consumer for free?

In his groundbreaking new book, The Long Tail author Chris Anderson considers a brave new world where the old economic certainties are being undermined by a growing flood of free goods - newspapers, DVDs, T-shirts, phones, even holiday flights. He explains why this has become possible - why new technologies, particularly the Internet, have caused production and distribution costs in many sectors to plummet to an extent unthinkable even a decade ago. He shows how the flexibility provided by the online world allows producers to trade ever more creatively, offering items for free to make real or perceived gains elsewhere. He pinpoints the winners and the losers in the Free universe. And he demonstrates the ways in which, as an increasing number of things become available for free, our decisions to make use of them will be determined by two resources far more valuable than money- the popular reputation of what is on offer and the time we have available for it. In the future, he argues, when we talk of the 'money economy' we will talk of the 'reputation economy' and the 'time economy' in the same breath, and our world will never be the same again.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

While the best things in life may be free, a business model based on giving stuff away seems a little crazy. But Anderson (editor in chief, Wired), who made a big splash with The Long Tail, tells us that this business model is already here. In The Long Tail, he showed how online businesses were making good by selling less of more, that is, by selling a huge range of niche or low-volume products that added up to big bucks. Here he demonstrates that the concept of making money by giving things away has already taken hold in the digital world. Verdict With explanations of basic economic principles like supply and demand and an analysis of the differences between products in the physical world and those in the digital world, Anderson makes the Free premise sound quite reasonable. Lots of companies are making lots of money from "free." Google and Yahoo, for instance, have some of the biggest computer server complexes in the world, yet they let us use their email, news, and search services every day. While this book may not be free, it will generate interest among both academic and general readers.-Carol J. Elsen, Univ. of Wisconsin, Whitewater (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publishers Weekly Review

In the digital marketplace, the most effective price is no price at all, argues Anderson (The Long Tail). He illustrates how savvy businesses are raking it in with indirect routes from product to revenue with such models as cross-subsidies (giving away a DVR to sell cable service) and freemiums (offering Flickr for free while selling the superior FlickrPro to serious users). New media models have allowed successes like Obama's campaign "billboards" on Xbox Live, Webkinz dolls and Radiohead's name-your-own-price experiment with its latest album. A generational and global shift is at play-those below 30 won't pay for information, knowing it will be available somewhere for free, and in China, piracy accounts for about 95% of music consumption-to the delight of artists and labels, who profit off free publicity through concerts and merchandising. Anderson provides a thorough overview of the history of pricing and commerce, the "mental transaction costs" that differentiate zero and any other price into two entirely different markets, the psychology of digital piracy and the open-source war between Microsoft and Linux. As in Anderson's previous book, the thought-provoking material is matched by a delivery that is nothing short of scintillating. (July) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

CHOICE Review

In the prologue, the author states, "This was a fun book to write." Not as much can be said for reading it. Entertaining? Check. Insightful? Informative? Authoritative? No checks. Anderson, editor of Wired and author of The Long Tail (2008), here posits that familiar business models and marketing schemes are, well, "so 20th century." The digital-Internet era has ushered in not just differences in degree but, more importantly, differences in kind because the cost of reaching vast new audiences is now approximately zero--or free. But his chapters and sidebars--how air travel, cars, silverware, music, textbooks, and education can be free--are deceptive and misleading. And his infatuation with psychology and distain for traditional economics--for which this economist reviewer would give him an F, as is free--allows him to be glib and to conclude the volume in the time-honored tradition of airport terminal business books with "Free Rules: The Ten Principles of Abundance Thinking" and "Fifty Business Models Built on Free." There is an index but no references; maybe they were not free. Summing Up: Optional. General readers and professionals. A. R. Sanderson University of Chicago