They say that piracy on the Internet decreases sales. Everywhere you hear figures in hundreds of millions dollars/euros of revenues lost by sellers of music, movies, software and books.
Is it really true? Can you have a different take on sales by sharing? Here is a different story.
Paulo Coelho, author of 30 books such as “The Alchemist” and “The Witch of Portobello”, sold over 100 million books last year.
Being one of the most widely read living authors, many people want to know the secrets of his success.
"Success is falling down 7 times, but getting up 8." is one of his most quoted quips.
He puts this success down to BitTorrent, as he saw a huge increase in sales when his books appeared on sites such as The Pirate Bay.
Does this mean that anyone who wants to become a bestselling author, should begin by distributing free on a peer-to-peer network? But, the question of how to attract readers still remains.
Software, movies and music are essentially different from books. They can be consumed and used electronically very easily. But people still prefer to read paper books. So a ‘taster’ on pirate sites actually pushes sales up. Would this phenomenon also work for software, music and films?
Software, movies and music are essentially different from books. They can be consumed and used electronically very easily. But people still prefer to read paper books. So a ‘taster’ on pirate sites actually pushes sales up. Would this phenomenon also work for software, music and films?
Software companies freely distribute downloadable time-limited and function-limited versions on their own sites.
Would software companies release 'taster' versions of their programs on 'pirate' sites - hardly?
It would be difficult to picture Microsoft releasing mini-taster versions of Office software like Word, Excel and PowerPoint on these sites.
Photo source:
However, should the music and movie industries learn something here rather than moan?
4 comments:
Who would've thought of that! Sharing actually creates more synergy.
Sharing to attract more attention seems to be an excellent idea. Very broadminded indeed. I love Paolo Coelho's books.
I've enjoyed his early books verymuch. But is this a sign that Paolo is giving in to commercialism?
Thanks to everyone for their comments.
Post a Comment