Chaired by Robert Andrews of paidContent:UK, this panel explores whether the value of content inevitably trend towards zero? How do content owners add value to deliver effective “freemium” services? What role can new formats and technologies play?

Robert is joined by (more boys with carrots/sticks) Paul Brown of Spotify UK; Stephen Moore of Walt Disney EMEA; Kristian Segerstrale of Playfish; Tim Clark of IE: Music; Stephen Somerville of 7 digital and Rob Lewis of Omnifone.

My summary:

Free is a great way to attract a consumer, but fully functional services are never going to be free. You need to upgrade consumers

Its all about enagagement, once you've got it then you introduce *options* to transact

Better user experiences that work (and work anywhere), will have the majority of customers adopting premium services after a free trial period

There is still money to be made in the advertising market: digital display is worth £1.5bn 

We get too caught up looking for one business model. The solution is all of them, it will be a mesh of models

Free is a business opportunity. Marginal delivery costs enabled by digital means reaching massive audiences

Remove obstacles and people will pay for convenience if nothing else 

The churn rates for consumers who have been persuaded to pay for content are very low

 

Paul Brown says the most sensible things: "Peer to peer technology is not the devil" (Skype is P2P which most people don't actually know). He is also just about the first speaker to mention Creative Commons, which is astonishing.

My commentary kind of runs out here as i got embroiled in a twitter discussion on whether it is the sector or the C&binet organisers at fault for the lack of the women on the panels. There is an interesting blog from Carrie Bish on why this under-representation needs addressing.

 

Finally, an interesting thing:

Q: Who is the richest person in the music industry?

A: Steve Jobs. So there.