Free Music Doesn't Mean Devalued Music

The concept of zero took ages for societies to recognize—let alone understand—and it’s been a stumbling block in economics recently, especially for the music industry. Those who think about economics in terms of scarcity get upset when abundance pushes price down towards zero (as we’ve seen with digital audio files), as if the economic equation was broken (even though it isn’t).

But artists and other creators hit a different stumbling block than economists: zero is a problem because they feel like their art is worthless.

They aren’t hung up on scarcity. They’re hung up on “devaluation.”

Click to read more ...