gift-economics

“Are artistic creations part of the gift economy or the transaction economy?

Gifts might be less efficient than market-driven transactions—where everything gets measured and quantified. But they play a similar function in society. Or maybe even a better function.

Take music for example. The more a musician gives, the greater the total value created. The musician who plays alone in the practice room creates very little value, and that’s true whether you measure it in dollars or in the less tangible psychological, emotional and social metrics of gift exchange. But when that same song is performed for a thousand people, its value increases enormously—and the catalyst here isn’t the transaction (the ticket price to a concert, for example), but the song itself, which becomes more powerful through this act of sharing.

In other words, music is what I call an anti-commodity—my name for things that aren’t exhausted when used or given away, but get larger and more valuable”

https://www.honest-broker.com/p/why-i-take-gifts-seriously

"Gifts might be less efficient than market-driven transactions—where everything gets measured and quantified. But they play a similar function in society. Or maybe even a better function. [...]

"...music is what I call an anti-commodity—my name for things that aren’t exhausted when used or given away, but get larger and more valuable.” 

~ Ted Gioia, "Why I Take Gifts Seriously"

Word-Slinger-in-Chief + Senior Editor /slowcore-hq + /gift-economics | GenX eldergoth | dark ambient music nerd | contemplative animist 🏳‍🌈

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I see the workings of the anti-commodity gift pattern with the "pirated" books example... but I do wonder how much of that additional value actually gets returned to the author in the final analysis. Depends on publishing terms, platforms, copyright enforcement, and many other factors. 

In any case, I agree that harnessing the network effects in ways that deliver better benefits to writers would be great. I think that starts with gift economics: recognizing that these gift value increases are taking place, and that the boost in value created by the gift is going *somewhere* (not necessarily into the writer's coffers).

I remember reading that quite a few authors are very happy if their books are "pirated" because word about them will spread and will actually result in more sales. 

Of course that is valid after a certain critical mass of initial sales is reached, maybe after you're already a "best seller".

How great would it be to be able to harness such network effects in a more distributed way... so more writers could benefit.