Back-end digital ROI with Avril Lavingne

Chris Anderson wrote about it in an amazing and forward looking article in Wired magazine that talked about the economy of free, specifically "freekonomics", where you provide some part or component of your brand or media to the consumer for free, hoping that they will purchase a premium part for a fee.

Avril Lavingne is one artist who says that she has received upwards of 2 million in revenue (her cut would of been much less after songwriters, composers, etc...), which shows that artists of all kinds have an opportunity to be entrepreneurial and increase revenue by in some ways incorporating the basis of what Chris Anderson was talking about. Provide something for free and sell on the back-end, a premise that goes back to Gillette amongst others.

This model shows promise for many musical artists or publishers that their is revenue potential after a huge drop in recored sales, and the record industries major reluctance to not embrace Napster/P2P as a new way to distribute music.

This shows that a "free" model works for music with the right partners, but it also shows that people are willing to pay for something that they want if some part of it is for free.