Chris Anderson’s new book, Free: The Future of a Radical Price, is about to come out. I enjoyed The Long Tail, so I’m sure I’ll buy this one.
Most of you know, Chris Anderson’s basic theory of the universe is: information is getting cheaper and cheaper, so cheap that it’s actually free. Free changes everything.

Most of you probably also know about Malcolm Gladwell’s review of Free. Gladwell’s basic theory of Chris Anderson is: You’re full of crap.

And, of course, they’re both right. Gladwell points out that YouTube is losing money. Famously, Twitter and Facebook are also losing money (with no viable path to profitability), chugging along on investor dollars. Gladwell is right to point out that businesses cannot continue to give stuff away for free forever- it’s too damn expensive.

And Anderson is right in saying that information “wants to be free.” Well- that’s not exactly right- consumers want information to be free. Market pressure brings prices down. If I can get free news one place, and cheap news somewhere else, I’ll read free news.

They both belabor exceptions and special cases. People will pay for better. People will pay for faster. People will pay for more convenient. The problem with all of those models is, of course, that someone, somewhere, is trying to figure out how to give away faster, better, more convenient. They might have their own brilliant monetization plan. They might just think the technology is cool. They might be anti-capitalist hackers. They might be trying to sell a coaching program. They might be idiots assuming they can make money without a solid plan. They might be a non-profit organization. They might be Chinese secret agents plotting to slowly take control of the flow of information.

A bunch of people will continue to figure out how to get stuff for free. A bunch of other people will continue to pay for stuff. A bunch of other people will figure out how to get whatever they want (money, power, influence, love) by giving those other bunches the stuff they want. And bunches more (who can’t figure anything out) will try to figure out how to force all this stuff from happening.

So, who really profits from all this economic upheaval caused by “Free?”

Uber-cool journalists who get paid to talk about it.