When you have the most popular digital music player on the planet, the largest digital music store, and billions of cash on hand, you tend to attract outsiders who want a piece of the action. Apple, meet Stacie Somers.
On December 31st, 2007, Stacie Somers filed a class action lawsuit against Apple for violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act among other things. You can view the entire 24 page filing here. So what nuggets of information can we find within?
Page 2 # 6: “Online Video make it superior to DVDs purchased from traditional retail outlets.”
If you think video hobbled with DRM, a lower picture quality than DVD, and no special features makes it “superior”, the I’ve got some great beach property in Kansas to sell you Stacie.
Page 4 # 13: “Apple has repeatedly acted to foreclose even the possibility ofcompetition by using its market power to force consumers to choose its products based not on their merits, but on the fact that technological restrictions and incompatibilities prevent them from buying its competitors’ products.”
So you’re saying that it’s not because the iPod looks amazing, easily works with the music management software (iTunes), or is so very easy to use? What you’re saying is that when you go to pay for your Zune the credit card machine breaks down because Apple remotely disabled the connection to the credit card processor? Makes perfect sense to me.
It seems like nearly every day you hear someone say the words “iPod Killer” or “iTunes Killer” in reference to the newest portable digital music player or content deliver mechanism. As time goes by, those claims are swept out of the consumers minds and the next “big thing” gives it a go too. Recently however, one “iTunes Killer” has actually managed to stay at the forefront of consumers thoughts and wallets. Despite being web only, the Amazon MP3 store has received good reviews and with the combination of cheap songs has kept consumers happy.
In an effort to bring more consumers to Amazon MP3, Amazon is teaming with Pepsi to give away 1 Billion songs according to Billboard. The Motley Fool has the scoop here. If you remember a few years ago, Pepsi teamed with Apple to give away 100 million iTunes songs.
Personally, I’m really excited about this promotion for a few reasons.
1) I’m likely to get some free music since I have a moderate Mountain Dew habit.
2) Competition for iTunes and Apple IS a good thing. Just remember about a month ago when Apple dropped the price of iTunes Plus tracks to compete more directly with the DRM free tracks from Amazon.
3) The more people that buy digital music, the larger the market is for digital music players. Since the iPod controls the majority of the digital music player market, a larger market means more iPod sales.
What’s interesting in this whole promotion is that for the first time, consumers are being targeted with a large scale promotion of DRM free music. Could this be the beginning of the end for DRM? I sure hope so.
I’m not sure if this is a first for iTunes, but it is impressive none the less. Edward Burns has decided to debut his new movie exclusively on iTunes, before it’s shown anywhere else. It’s impressive because Edward Burns is fairly well known and has directed some Award Winning films. My first introduction to Edward Burns was back when I worked in a video store in high school. His directorial debut was the Brothers McMullen, which won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival. I brought it home one night at really enjoyed the movie. His next turn in the directors chair was She’s the One, which I also enjoyed.
The real question in all of this is, will debuting the movie on iTunes first reward the content creator instead of the movie studios? If debuting to iTunes first is going to work, this type of film is the perfect test case. An indie drama doesn’t need to pull in enough cash to cover a huge special effects budget like an action movie would. It’s also something that doesn’t necessarily require a huge TV with perfect sound to be enjoyed like some of the summer blockbuster movies.
I’m really interested to see if any sales/profit figures are released once the exclusivity to iTunes is gone. I really hope the movie is a hit and sells well on iTunes, giving other directors the opportunity to keep more of their movie’s profits. We’ve seen the trend of music artists ditching their record labels, but movies have traditionally been a different animal. Could this be the movie revenue model of the future?
If you’re into indie/folk/female singer-songwriters, then iTunes has a gem for you right now. How Lucky We Are, by Meiko, is currently available for free from iTunes. Meiko grew up in Roberta, GA so it’s nice to see some local talent finding success in the music business (I’m from GA).
Embedded below is a video of Meiko performig at Eddie’s Attic. Eddie’s Attic is an amazing place to hear acoustic music in Atlanta. I’ve seen some great musicians at Eddie’s Attic, including Jennifer Nettles many times. If you are ever in the area and like acoustic music, I highly suggest you check out Eddie’s Attic.
Update: Looks like the song is no longer free. Seems like I posted at the tail end of the free song offer; sorry!
Amazon recently launched their newest online service, Amazon MP3. Amazon MP3, currently in Beta, is a digital music service that will compete with iTunes, eMusic, Amie Street, and others. I decided to kick the tires today and test out Amazon’s newest product.
Browsing the site is pretty much like using Amazon to purchase any of their other products. You can perform a search or use the navigation bar on the left side of the page. I purchased a song on the Top Songs list so didn’t venture too much into the interface but it seems very easy to use from my limited experience.
Once you find a track you want, click the Buy MP3 button and you’ll be prompted to download the Amazon MP3 Downloader. The downloader is necessary for album purchases but not for song purchases. I went ahead and downloaded it anyways.
I went through the checkout process and a .amz file was downloaded to my laptop. Double clicking the file begins the song download in the Amazon Downloader application. About 5 seconds later, the song was downloaded and it was automatically added to my iTunes library. If you want to manually manage your music, you can turn off the auto add to iTunes feature in the preferences of the downloader application.
Be careful about clicking the Buy MP3 button. Once you are logged into Amazon, clicking the button will automatically purchase the song much like the 1 click buying. I clicked the button by accident and purchased a song i didn’t really want to buy. Good thing the track was only $.89.
iTunes may finally have some competition with Amazon MP3. Most tracks are only $.89 and most albums $8.99. The songs are all DRM free and encoded at 256kbps in mp3 format. Right now the selection is a little limited, but I expect that to improve over time.
Competition is good for consumers, but we’ll have to wait and see if Apple changes the iTunes store in response. If you purchase from iTunes, Amazon MP3 is worth your time to check out. The reviews are out, and so far theyare positive.
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