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Fixed media based pricing #fails, Market Knowledge Systems will be our answer

23 Jan 2010

The type of pricing I'm referring to is a product of BigCo thinking. Independent of the quality of the content, the price is dictated primarily by the format. It's easier to charge a fixed price for all media of a company defined category.

I believe as consumers, our market role has matured and grown a lot more savvy. The pure market force of supply and demand doesn't smoothly transition into information space.

These are the defining factors of the new Free Market:

What we absolutely don't need is a fixed price system. A personal example: why does the cost to experence cinematic art such as Avatar 3D in the theater, identical to paying for Hollywood fast food B films (shlock) like Legion. While personal tastes vary, there should be direct consumer cost structures that relate to the value of media.

The market elements necessary to properly value media are not yet fully developed. Measurements (metrics) are key to understanding proper media value. Since bandwidth is the new format for the majority of content consumption, we can monitor market resource demand. In lieu of Net based distribution, other metrics can dynamically adjust pricing (box office sales, inventory data). An adequate sample size of this information needs to be transparently collected and publically available (tax break to businesses who opt in).

Market Knowledge Systems: What we can do to change the status quo

My preferred design empowers market demand to judge and reward the creators of quality media. One massive system is not the right answer. We can't escape the reality of localized costs, or varied consumer communities. Thousands of niche markets can aggregate and feedthrough their local prices to world wide federated servers (publically supported). Now the value of media can change based on perceived social value. The activity can be fed into public algorithms which slide the minimum cost within a range determined by distribution hubs.

Here's the part where you need to pay attention. Distribution hubs have no requirement to follow suggested prices. The power of the system is improved consumer knowledge. A free market doesn't dictate prices to suppliers or consumers. Both customer and business are free to pay or charge as much as they wish. But now the entire world will be aware of fair costs and the real value of media. As fans, we can always give more to our beloved media artists.