Ad-Supported Free Music Downloads Doomed to Failure?

madonna writes "CNET extensively explains why the new We7.com download service — which offers ad-embedded free music downloads without DRM — is doomed to failure. 'This service absolutely, categorically will not succeed. You can quote us on that. It's true the best way to combat piracy is to provide a realistic and affordable alternative, and free is certainly affordable. But music downloaders are not going to switch to using a service that costs the same as using BitTorrent or Limewire, but comes with abominable disclaimers or advertisements.'"

Comments

I hope they are doomed.

[Entropius]

Advertising, fundamentally, is an economic parasite. Advertisers produce nothing of value, and add no value to the products they advertise; any economic model that relies on excessive advertising (more than "I have this product for sale if you are interested", which *does* provide value) is essentially wasteful.

This leaves open the question of how Slashdot et al. will get compensated for their bandwidth, but having to find a way for Slashdot to get paid is a better outcome than having an entire section of the economy doing nothing productive.