[audio-pals] Re: Amazon launches no-commercials, "free" music streaming for Prime members
- From: "Josh" <lawdog911@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <audio-pals@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 29 Jun 2014 20:21:57 -0700
That is the consensus I got from listening to the talk, but really and
truthfully with all of the streaming sites out there who cares about
Amazon's streaming. Perhaps there is people that do care about both the
phone and the music that Amazon provides, but to me it seems as though
Amazon is way behind the ball.
-----Original Message-----
From: audio-pals-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:audio-pals-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Ray T. Mahorney
Sent: Sunday, June 29, 2014 6:39 PM
To: audio-pals@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [audio-pals] Re: Amazon launches no-commercials, "free" music
streaming for Prime members
the overall opinion in the tech community seems to be "who cares? about
another smart phone?"
Ray T. Mahorney
WA4WGA
-----Original Message-----
From: audio-pals-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:audio-pals-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Josh
Sent: Sunday, June 29, 2014 20:32
To: audio-pals@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [audio-pals] Re: Amazon launches no-commercials, "free" music
streaming for Prime members
The music streaming does not surprise me as much as I was surprised to learn
about the smart phone that Amazon was marketing. I won der how it is.
-----Original Message-----
From: audio-pals-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:audio-pals-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Ray T. Mahorney
Sent: Thursday, June 12, 2014 5:20 PM
To: audio-pals@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [audio-pals] Amazon launches no-commercials, "free" music streaming
for Prime members
Amazon launches music streaming for Prime members
Jun 12, 2014 3:25 PM (ET)
By RYAN NAKASHIMA
Associated Press
http://apnews.myway.com//article/20140612/us--amazon_music-6bda69921c.html
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Amazon's newly announced music streaming service is yet
another attempt by the company to move beyond e-commerce and infuse itself
into the daily lives of Americans with an increasing number of offerings
-including grocery delivery and streaming TV.
The announcement comes just days ahead of the expected unveiling of the
company's first smartphone.
Starting Thursday, Amazon.com Inc. will offer more than a million tracks for
ad-free streaming and download to Kindle Fire tablets as well as to
computers and the Amazon Music app for Apple and Android devices. The
service, called Prime Music, is likely to be integrated with an Amazon
smartphone expected to be previewed on Wednesday.
People who pay $99 a year for an Amazon Prime membership can listen to tens
of thousands of albums from artists including Beyonce, The Lumineers and
Macklemore & Ryan Lewis for no extra cost. By adding music, Amazon is hoping
to hook new customers and retain existing ones on its Prime free-shipping
plan, which also allows subscribers to watch streams of movies and TV shows
and gives Kindle owners a library of books they can borrow once a month.
But the service has far fewer songs than services like Spotify or Rhapsody,
and no deal with top-ranked Universal Music Group. Wedbush analyst Michael
Pachter said the service is not likely to make a big impact on Prime
membership. He said Prime members are likely to already use other streaming
services so there is not much of a reason to switch to Amazon's service.
"Very few people are going to use it, like Prime Instant Video, very few
people even know that exists," he said. "We are Prime members because we
want free shipping."
Steve Boom, Amazon's vice president of digital music, said the service will
pay for itself and isn't part of the reason why the company raised the price
of Prime from $79 in March - a move Amazon said would cover higher shipping
costs. Instead, the company will benefit because Prime members tend to buy
more from Amazon and remain loyal customers.
"If they come to Amazon for their music needs, they become better and
longer-term Amazon customers, and we think that's a good thing," Boom said.
The deal comes on the heels of Apple Inc.'s announcement that it is
purchasing headphone and music-streaming company Beats for $3 billion and is
a further acknowledgement of the rise in popularity of streaming and the
decline of digital downloads. U.S. sales of downloaded songs slipped
1 percent last year to $2.8 billion while streaming music revenue surged 39
percent to $1.4 billion, according to the Recording Industry Association of
America.
Early results this year showed a further decline in music download sales,
Boom said.
"Music consumption habits are changing, which is why we started this,"
he said. "We saw the change happening."
Seattle-based Amazon reached licensing deals with most of the top
independent labels and major recording companies Sony and Warner Music, but
failed to reach a deal with top-ranked Universal Music Group.
That means that while the service will feature artists like Justin
Timberlake, Bruno Mars, Bruce Springsteen, Pink and Madonna - it will lack
music by Universal stars such as Katy Perry, Taylor Swift and Jay-Z.
The service also won't have many new releases - and for major artists that
could mean music that has been released within the last six months.
Universal didn't reach a deal with Amazon because it disagreed with the
value of the lump sum royalty payment on offer for the albums in question,
according to two people familiar with the matter.
One person said the royalty amounted to about $40 million to $50 million for
the entire music industry over two years.
Labels other than Universal concluded the amount would be equal to or better
than a per-play streaming royalty, given how often the songs were played on
other digital services, the person said.
Both people were not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of
anonymity.
Amazon will recommend songs to customers who have bought music from it in
the past with offers to complete albums if they're available on the service.
It has also hired experts to compile hundreds of playlists that are 20 to 50
songs in length based on genre or mood that are easy to download before
getting on the subway or on a plane, Boom said.
Amazon's strategy has long been to plow the money it generates back into its
business, focusing on growth. The tactic results in thin margins, but
investors largely give Amazon a pass for forgoing a strong profit for
growth.
The company boosted its Prime 2-day shipping membership program annual fee
from $79 to $99 in March to offset higher shipping costs. Since then, it has
been adding services to Prime membership to attract new customers and
encourage existing customers to spend more.
It started a service that lets Twitter users add Amazon.com products to
their carts without leaving the social media site. In April, it launched
Prime Pantry, a grocery delivery service for Prime members. The same month,
it introduced Amazon Fire, its first set-top video streaming box.
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