Books like Free: The Future of a Radical Price

Goodreads says that I'm "finished with Free", but I disagree. I love Free, and while listening to this audiobook (which was free), I was surprised by how much Free I'd taken advantage of in my life without even giving it a thought. Chris Anderson says that my generation inherently understands (and to a point, expects) Free, and I'm proof of that. Hotmail, Yahoo!, Google, oh my! The internet is like the Free capital of the universe. I've never given a single thought to how these companies could give away their products for free. I have thought about it in regards to the site I'm currently on, though. (That'd be Goodreads.com, for those of you lost on the internet right now. Take the next left at the Grumpy Cat image and then straight on through the XKCD gateway, and you'll find your way home.) I've often said that I would gladly pay a yearly fee (or even donate) to keep the site independent. Ad-free would be nice, too, but whatevs. Then there's LibraryThing, which is a "Freemium" model. It's free up to the first 200 books you add on the site, and then you have to pay. I'd used LT before finding GR, and once I found GR, it was all over but the cryin' (as the saying goes) for LT. I did go back very briefly, but the site just doesn't compare. And you can't beat free. Though even if GR wasn't free, at this point, I'd likely STILL stay, because now I'm hooked. I'm invested in the site... which is a tactic that is also used in Free. Give people a trial so they can see how great your service is, and they'll want to stay even though they have to pay for it. There's a lot of great info in this book that I'd never thought about, and I was actually surprised at how much Free plays into capitalism. It was fascinating to see the ways in which Free interacts with paid, supplementing and encouraging business innovation and growth. I appreciated how easy this was to listen to and that it was engaging and entertaining at the same time. A little repetitive at times, but that's to be expected. I also appreciated how even-handed it was. Anderson laid out the pros and cons of Free, including piracy, and how it can be both a positive and a negative force in business, while keeping his own personal opinions about the ethics out of it. Overall, I quite enjoyed this, and I am glad that I found it at random on Audible. I like random books, but I love random FREE books. :D