User Generated Media – Taken To A New Frontier…

With all the buzz about Web 2.0, and the consumer taking over ultimate control of all content on the net; with the rise to iconic status of “my” space, “(h)e” bay, and “you” tube, and all the other offshoots of this phenomena jostling to grab a share of the pie (Facebook, Joost, Revver – see more posts later); with Second Life/ Virtual World becoming a fully traded parallel economy via Linden Dollars (see more posts on this later); with ads now being renamed avatarsement – the new consumer/ user generated media phenomenon is slowly but surely pervading every aspect of our lives.

But I think the ultimate representation of this phenomenon was to me a small news blurb that said that the famed British band Radiohead is letting fans decide what to pay for a new release online. "It's up to you," reads a message on the Web page where fans can pre-order the band's highly anticipated seventh album and pay whatever they choose, including nothing! How do they make money? By having a “deluxe” edition of the album “In Rainbows” that has some bells and whistles (read extra songs and some merchandize) added that they sell – and they sell it for a lot!!!

This REALLY puts the control in the user’s hand – I remember back in my youth being very impressed with the Ayn Rand play “The Night of January 16th” which had a dual possible ending – the audience was supposed to decide which way the play would end….that to me is one of the fore runners of User Generated Content – but to enable fans to decide pricing is really the ultimate in that direction. Some people would say its just cool/ innovative positioning – i.e., instead of saying – we are offering it for free – these folks have used a clever hook – “pay what you want” – but the fact remains, it’s a great sign of the times that such a stunt is even possible….Ralph Nader would be happy - More power to the Consumer!