Web File Space like Grains of Sand

Posted on | October 22, 2007 | 1 Comment

I spend four years, I think, in the dot-com bubble economy here in Silicon Valley. This was the time where the business plans were  based on these three phases: 1) Build a web site, 2) ?!??!???!, 3) Profit. Those were strange times, and based on that I decided to never work in a company where the second part was not fully defined.

Anyway, I still don’t understand the business model of providing free disk space for downloads. Maybe someone is making some profit from blinking ads, but most consumers  by now should have developed a mental block to just ignore any ads on any web page.  Anyway, for us working with music it’s a bonanza to get free disk space here and there for use. Yousendit is a tool I use a lot, it’s the best to just blast demos and promos to other producers, and avoid overloading my web site’s transfer numbers.

Another place I just signed up for was Divshare. I’m still not sure if they have figured out phase 2, but hey, unlimited uploads, so why not. I just reserved an account in case I want to upload temporary mixed material, late night Ableton Live jam sessions, and other transitory material where I don’t care if the link is suddenly stale due to the owners figuring out another business model. Meanwhile, make use of this offer. If you tell your end users that this link is temporary, download now this mix or piece of music, they will get it.

By the way, the business model described above is actually from a South Park episode, the Underpant Gnomes, where phase one is to collect underpants, phase two is ‘silence’, and phase three is profit. You could check out that episode on youtube. I think that rule applies to any other business enterprises, even related to doing music.

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