Do you think those investors want to see a return on that investment?
Where do you think that return on investment will come from if the product is free?
For better or worse this is literally what record labels and publishers do - invest in new talent, handle marketing and promotion, spread the investment around and hope to win big on a handful of hits which pay for the misses.
Do you really think tech VCs invented this model?
Publisher/investors/labels/agents/promoters have been doing it since at least the 19th century.
No offense but your whole post is a straw man. I never said anything about anything being free. Although if you want to post videos for free on youtube, that seems to be a popular choice for a lot of people these days.
Anyway this is why I didn't want to discuss things in that direction, because it always leads to people attacking the argument with totally nonsensical conclusions. Of course the concept of patronage wasn't invented by tech VCs or kickstarter or whatever you're thinking of. Can we try to think about this constructively?
Where do you think that return on investment will come from if the product is free?
For better or worse this is literally what record labels and publishers do - invest in new talent, handle marketing and promotion, spread the investment around and hope to win big on a handful of hits which pay for the misses.
Do you really think tech VCs invented this model?
Publisher/investors/labels/agents/promoters have been doing it since at least the 19th century.