Chris Anderson published his much talked about “Free” book recently and naturally is was (and is) free from several sources. It can be downloaded as an audiobook read by Chris himself or as an eBook for most platforms.

This post isn’t about that though, the book’s already been discussed at length all over the web. This post was sparked by a free CD from a Coldplay concert i attended this weekend.  When leaving the concert a free live-album was given to every participant. The album, or EP – whatever you want to call it, contains a few of Coldplay’s songs recorded from various concerts. A few years ago I don’t think that would have been done.

Now, I know that the music industry is a hot potato whenever. I’d just like to add my two cents to the debate. Giving out that free CD costs Coldplay very little, even in the amazing numbers they will be giving away. The ticket’s were 595,00 kr, which is a fairly large amount of money for a two hour event. By handing out free swag people will be remembering the event for ages, and will possibly even go again. “Coldplay, oh year, they gave us a free CD”.

I have a friend who is a stand up comedian. He doesn’t get “free”. He doesn’t want people to film him with phones and Flip-cams, because he’s afraid he “wont look his best” and people wont come to his shows. Since when has a crappy, low-lit video ever discouraged people from showing up? I’d argue that your curiosity would be peaked and you’d be MORE likely to go. This has been argued by loads of people and I think we need to start spreading the word to “non industry” people.

Every form of taping or picture taking you can imagine was banned from the Coldplay concert. While this obviously didn’t stop people from using phones and cameras it’s just a stupid extra niggle when going to a concert. I’m not going to bring a proper video camera, now am I? I’d bring my Flip and tape a few seconds for Youtube. The picture and sound would suck but it would be a nice bit of extra content for the fans. Coldplay always play a few “bonus tracks” (Billy Jean, this time) and they usually aren’t available via any official media. Youtube version = better than nothing. Hey, I might even want to go see them next time, right?

Stephen Fry, you’ve got to love him, spoke at the recent London iTunes festival about copyright. He believes, and I agree, that file sharing should be allowed for private individuals. We should crack down on people who sell “illegal” downloads and let the others be. The content makers still earn a living, you know. Besides, the business model needs to change forthwith. Concerts pay the bills, right? Not CD sales.

Fry spoke of how the copyright versions we use today have remained unchanged for far too long, a view which is shared be the eloquent Swedish Pirate Party (and the new, somewhat less eloquent British version). As is often the case technology has overtaken our laws and rules. If a Danish Pirate Party is formed I’d consider voting for them. If nothing else then for the attention it would bring to the issue.

And finally, no, I’m not saying this because I want to be able to download all my moviez and m00sic for fr33. I still buy CDs, for God’s sake, who does that? I just feel it’s getting stupidly out of hand. And seriously, aren’t we an advanced enough society that we can start to change? Look at Spotify – it’s awesome and I use it via a British VPN-connection. The same with Hulu. Can we have this stuff all over the globe, please? Right need to stop being regional and start being global – like the internet.