Team Micropayments!
Actually, Dirk Deppey has some very sensible things to say about Clay Shirky and Scott McCloud and Joey Manley and paying 25 cents for comics on the web, and his good sense doesn’t preclude a guarded optimism about the idea.
Have no idea what this is about? Do anything creative with your spare time that you could post to the web for others to see or read or listen to or download? Enjoy buying more beer than not? Get up to speed on the pros and cons; you’re going to want to figure out where you stand. —A handy guide to debating the issue: if someone says, “Would you pay a quarter for MetaFilter?” they’re missing the point entirely. No one would pay a quarter or a dime or a penny a hit for MetaFilter or BoingBoing or Plastic—or Electrolite, or Daily Kos—or wood s lot, or Ftrain, or Brad DeLong’s semi-daily journal—some of the value they bring to the table is quick and frequent and easy to access and free free free. (Though we might pay for Bellona Times. Or D-squared. I’m just sayin’.)
What we’re (to plant my flag) talking about is paying a quarter for Wary Tales or The Right Number or Apocamon. Or Babe the Blue Ox, say, the best band in the goddamn world, who wandered into the wilderness out of a nasty recording contract, and who now post MP3s and ask you to send them a buck a song for the privilege of downloading, when you get around to it—wouldn’t you rather click a button and give them a buck right there and then than write a check and fill out an envelope and dig up a stamp?
That’s a hint, y’all.
Micropayments will never be the only way content is supported on the web. But it is a way. One with a lot of plusses and a few minusses, but one that shows a great deal of promise in putting not just the opportunity to speak up in more hands than ever before, but the nickel-and-dime ability. It will never drive free content off the web—but it isn’t trying to. No one will ever pay nickels for blog entries and portal links—but no one is expecting them to. It may never make anyone stinking rich—but so what? Making art for money has always been something of a crap shoot; anything that smooths out the contingency and rates a better-than-even chance of making a steady stream of beer money would itself be a miracle, and deserves as fair a shake as we can give it.
Your mileage may vary, of course. But you will want some mileage on this one. I don’t think micropayments are going to dry up and blow away any time soon.
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Micropayments
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