How Much am I Paying for All That Free Digital Media?

There’s a lot of talk about free digital media, but last time I checked all this free digital media is blowing a serious hole in my wallet. When is enough enough, and what does it mean for emerging digital businesses?

I first started adding it up when radio cohorts started dumping on HD Radio.

The argument was, with broadband’s inevitable march to the dashboard, why bother? With thousands of radio stations available in the dashboard, a couple of radio station side channels wouldn’t matter, right?

It’s a good argument, but perhaps not a winning argument. After all smart-phones and miniplugs already offer thousands of stations in the dashboard. Does that mean radio should throw in the towel?

The internet-in-the-dashboard proponents tend to skip over a few big hurdles. First is the near-term issue of infrastructure. Anyone with an iPhone knows that the infrastructure isn’t up to the task. According to AT&T, data downloads have increased by 7000% in the past three years.

The second is that, best as I can tell, it’s not likely to be free.

So how much are you willing to pay for a web package in the car, in addition for the package you’re paying for your mobile phones, high-speed internet, and cable?

My quick review of what I’m paying to keep my family connected adds up to $429/month — more than $5000 a year — and that doesn’t include any of my subscriptions, or additional media entertainment such as movie rentals, music purchases, and the like. That’s just staying connected.

Something had to give.

I love satellite radio, but I let that go when Major League Baseball created an iPhone app. I knocked off premium cable channels in favor of cherry-picking series on-demand. We’re killing cable altogether next for a fiber-optic phone/high-speed internet/TV combo package with FIOS.

Add another data package for an iPad? Not anytime soon. A data package for the car? Not a chance.

At some point, enough is enough. Most of us are well beyond that point, and that fact will be somewhat of a boat anchor on many pie-in-the-sky digital business plans. At least in the near-term. Will it be enough to crack and opening for HD Radio?

With regard to skyrocketing costs for “free” content, I felt like I was reading about my own family in this story on this same subject by Jenna Wortham in The New York Times.