Yes. He lost me when the author said "in the digital world, advertising, the only real revenue stream, cannot support a small digital business." Chris Anderso

Yes. He lost me when the author said "in the digital world, advertising, the only real revenue stream, cannot support a small digital business." Chris Anderson is doing the lecture circuit before his book on Free comes out. His Wired article has a list of business models beyond advertising: http://www.wired.com/techbiz/it/magazine/16-03/ff_free?currentPage=all http://www.wired.com/techbiz/it/magazine/16-03/ff_free?curre... 37signals makes their living off the "Freemium" model. I don't think Prince raised a VC round before he gave away his CD. As the cost of providing some services goes to zero, businesses can make some things free, especially if it helps grow other markets.