Chris Anderson's Free is first free audiobook on Spotify

By Nate Lanxon on 03 July 2009, 10:46am

Chris Anderson is the editor of Wired magazine in the US. His latest book -- Free: The Future of a Radical Price -- dissects and discusses the effect no-cost products, notably those offered online, have on businesses. And to support his arguments, he's giving the downloadable versions of the book away for free. In the UK, it's also the first audiobook on streaming music service Spotify and is, of course, available completely free of charge.

Anderson's previous work -- 2006's The Long Tail -- was a critically acclaimed and influential tome on the subject of online economics, and relatively controversial. Previews of Free suggest it is likely to have a comparable impact.

Given that advertising is one of the many ways the proliferation of free digital content has been made possible -- it's largely how CNET UK's articles are paid for, for example -- it makes sense that Anderson's audiobook is supported by ads in Spotify.

It's available in the UK now. If you have Spotify installed, this link will take you to the book, which runs for around three hours. You can download Spotify here.

Incidentally, Anderson, who narrates the audiobook, gets bonus points for introducing it, "Free, by Chris Anderson -- that's me!"