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Journalism, music, air fares - soon everything will be free

In business, "free" tends to be a dirty word. Free music is blamed for ruining the record industry. Free online news is blamed for the decline of newspapers.

But as the digital age exerts an inexorable downward pressure on the prices of all things "made of ideas", “freeconomics”, is becoming an increasingly common business model, for products ranging from album downloads to search engines. Even airlines have cut down the price of their fares to next to nothing.

Is this sustainable? How will businesses adapt to changing times?

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