We have come to demand free content online, mistaking the packaging of physical products for what we were actually paying for- the creative content.

Do you read newspapers online? Own a kindle? Download television programmes so you can skip the adverts? What are the consequences of these activities and products for cultural businesses? Is the result inevitable cultural impoverishment? FREE RIDE asks these questions, and explores the ways in which businesses can fight back against the expectation that everything we value should be available for free. It is the essential guide to a global marketplace in transition, explaining where we are, how we got here, and what we have to do to avoid cultural meltdown.