A recent article in business week (October 9, 2006) "Free downloads - after this message" talks about how providing Free content might be the best model to fight piracy. It is estimated that 20 BILLION songs were illegally downloaded or swapped in 2005. So, this is a huge problem (and opportunity).
This is how the "Free model" will work. You will download a song and the download process will take 90 seconds. During those 90 seconds, you will watch an ad. The ad revenue is shared between the music company and the service provider.
The issues with this model are: 1) It is difficult to estimate the affect on customer experience (i.e. people may not like being forced to watch an ad to get their music) and 2) Ad is more susceptible to swings in the economy and therefore the model might be very complicated to develop.
Bottom line - I think this model coupled with a threat of huge penalties if involved in piracy might help companies tap into that huge "illegal download market".
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