It’s fascinating how EMI and Universal are both starting free music downloads. We’ve come a long way since the music industry was suing the Hell out of Napster. It now seems to have realised that free media is a great way to build a brand, and that the profits lie elsewhere.

Brand building is also the model for blogs and podcasts. Steve Rubel lists his A_Z of money-raking schemes for blogs, but most advertising plans only bring in peanuts unless you dedicate your blog to a specific marketing niche (i.e. camcorders). Blog Readers are not in shopping mode. When you want to buy something on the net, you go to somewhere like Amazon or eBay or DABS. You don’t read a blog. The other way to make money out of advertising is to have tens of thousands of readers so that all those Google Adsense pennies add up. Only a few blogs make it that big. Most cater to a niche.

People do benefit financially from blogging and podcasting in indirect ways. Steve Rubel himself has clearly boosted his career in PR by blogging, especially with his move to Edelman. He’s probably one of the most famous PR people in the world now. Lots of people have sold books off the back of a blog (sex seems to be a big theme), and it’s possible to imagine TV shows and other spin-offs from YouTube and podcasting.

Giving it away does make sense on the net. But it does mean that you have to wait for the money to come in. The great thing is though, that the financial cost is containable and the opportunity for building a global brand is real.