Stealers Are The Best Customers

IPCentral reports on a story from Digital Music News documenting that those who steal copyrighted music via P2P file sharing applications are the same individuals that spend the most on legally buying digital music. Key quote:

File-sharers spent an average of $9.63 (5.52 pounds) per month on legal music, while their non-swapping counterparts spent only $2.21 (1.27 pounds) over the same period.

The point? Giving away free information is often the most effective way of advertising your product/services. As Seth Godin says in his book Unleashing the Ideavirus:

It’s the money paradox — the sooner you ask for money, the less you ’ll make. The single biggest mistake idea merchants make is that they ask for money too soon.

And remember: people will pay for convenience. They'll try the P2P networks to get files for free, but once the unreliability of those networks creep in, they'll gladly go to an official store and shell out a measley dollar to get the song in an instant.