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Nicholas Lovell
Home   >   Analysis and Opinion   >   Analysis   >   Whales, power-laws and the future of media

Whales, power-laws and the future of media

By on August 26, 2010

I spoke at the Edinburgh Interactive Festival 2010 today on the grandiose subject of the future of media.

I think it went well. If you were there, please let me have your feedback below.

The heart of the presentation is this: Not all consumers are created equal but due to the limitations of physical distribution, all content businesses have treated them as if they are. We focus on circulation, units sold, audiences, and so on.

This is a rubbish idea. Consumers are all different. Some are heavy spenders; some are freeloaders. Some are grazers and some are avid consumers.

And the future of media depends on understanding and harnessing this. It means throwing out the model of selling a single fixed-price of content. It means understanding how consumers behaviour follows a power law curve.

It means catering to the 10% of your audience who want to and enjoy spending money with you and allowing them to spend $10, $50, S500 or more. It means allowing 90% of users to experience your content for free for ever.

Not convinced?  Read the presentation. Watch the video when I embed it in a week or so? Or ask me.

I am convinced this is the future of media. Help me spread the word.

Whales, power laws and the future of media

About Nicholas Lovell

Nicholas is the founder of Gamesbrief, a blog dedicated to the business of games. It aims to be informative, authoritative and above all helpful to developers grappling with business strategy. He is the author of a growing list of books about making money in the games industry and other digital media, including How to Publish a Game and Design Rules for Free-to-Play Games, and forthcoming Penguin title The Curve.