Money for nothingbuilding on the commons for fun and profit

John Buckman <john@magnatune.com>

http://slideshare.net/johnbuckman

Home bookshelves around the world

Their books available to you

for free

and nothing publishers can do about it

BookMoochmakes money with:

- margin on Amazon sales

($40,000 in monthly Amazon book sales)

Twenty companies

The largest:

BookCrossingPaperbackSwap

BookMooch

Estimate:

Two million people have tried book swapping

At least

50,000 books are swapped

each day

Google loves us

BookMooch - total number of swaps

BookMooch - total number of swaps

1 year ago: 300,000 - now at 1.1 million

300,000 in 1st year

800,000 in 2nd year

Book swapping web siteswill be the first global, free

repository of most historical human knowledge

But, there was a problem.

Our business model sucked.

BIG music license fees are an old-boy network

Our download advantages:

* no drm* high audio quality* musicians get paid

Yawn.

iTunes does that all now.

Cory Doctorow says:

DRM is not a feature

I say:

The lack of DRM is also not a feature.

Our consumer model is outdated.

In 1970:

Shopping for music is fun!

In 2000:

Shopping online for music is fun!

(just like in a physical store)

In 2008:

Shopping for music online is boring

Find a teenage girl

Look at her iPod

You will find:

CollectionsMusic from my friend Amy

That cute DJChill out

I wanna feel good! music

Our analysis:

being a music librarian is no fun

- picking music is tedious- backing up, moving music is work

- “I just want to listen!”

Our analysis:

People want access, they want curated collections,

they want simplicity.

Our new business model

Help us stop selling you music

Tell us how much you want to pay each month

We give you complete access to our music, in every way you can

imagine

streaming from workdownloads

3g iPhone appweb player

multihour podcastsCreative Commons legalized sharing

completely changes the seller/buyer dynamic

“customers” become

“members” and “supporters” and

“connectors”

and all I need to worry about is keeping them happy.

Forget B2C!

What about B2B?

US music business is$18 billion annually

$12 billion of that is licensing

Yes, 2/3rds.

Record labels are scared, slow, stupid.

And they’re downsizing.

And many companies are out-competing them with licensing.

Our niche:

rights you can’t get elsewhere

Renault Megane

From the producers of The Blair Witch Project

To summarize

Music licensing is an ok business

slow to build, focus on untapped niches

Download sales are dying

For now:

Memberships, all-you-can-eat,no restrictions,

works.

Magnatune won’t take over the world

but it can make a contribution

and it’s a nice way to spend a decade of my life

Money for nothingbuilding on the commons for fun and profit

John Buckman <john@magnatune.com>

http://slideshare.net/johnbuckman

the end