post from: Make the Logo Bigger
Because we’re never gonna survive, unless. His Label 2.0 is set to launch with a different revenue model: free music supported by ads on the site. Considering iTunes rewrote how music is sold–with individually downloadable songs–this might work too. But, it have some popular artists signed to draw enough advertisers to pull it off. Names draw sponsor interest, otherwise, they’ll be selling ad space to the local pizza joint or lowermybills.com. (Napster tried this at first too, but eventually had to go to a fee-based service. Difference there was that they were giving away someone else’s music.)

Another thing to consider is that since something like half of all music now has not been purchased, rather, shared among friends, this could be a possible solution to curb music piracy–why worry about illegal downloading if it’s free and if the label can still make money off ads? (Thing is, will advertisers want to sign up on a site where content will be shared somewhere else–kids with CDs of mp3s distributed while they’re at school for example–away from the ‘reach and frequency’ of their message?)