The Changing Face of Digital Music

A few years ago, digital music was mostly something that teenagers and techgeeks did illegally and inefficiently. Today, with iTunes in the lead, with $4B of the $9B music market passing through their store, there are many viable business models that enable the...

Free trial vs Freemium

Some people are confusing services featuring a free trial from true Freemium models.A free trial demonstrates value to a user for a limited duration.  The idea is to convince a user that the service has enough value to justify the paid subscription.  While...

Hulu launches HuluPlus $9.95 per month

Hulu has just launched HuluPlus, a monthly subscription that allows you to watch tv shows right after they aired (including great shows like ModernFamily, Glee and 30Rock) as well as movies on your Samsung TV or blu-ray player (certain models),computer, Apple's...

Estimating Free-Paid Ratios for Freemium Models

People are always asking me for estimates regarding conversion rates for freemium models.  In general, it is hard to say–it depends on the nature and quality of the free service, the additional value provided by the premium service, and the extent to which...

Launching Premium Offerings in a Freemium World

In the world of Freemium, one of of the biggest challenges is introducing a paid offering to complement the free one.  Here are a few tips:1.  The new offering needs to be better than the existing one.  There are very few examples of companies that...