Google is talking about offering first-run TV shows on YouTube for a fee, similar to the Amazon or iTunes model. For $1.99, you could view the latest episode of your favorite show, the day after it aired on network television.
The catch? It’s a streaming video. Unlike iTunes or Amazon, you have to watch it as a streaming video. The video won’t reside on your hard drive.
Sources say the site’s negotiations with the networks and studios that own the shows are preliminary. But both sides seem optimistic, since models for such deals already exist. No comment from YouTube.
The biggest stumbling block may be consumers. That’s because Google (GOOG) is talking about streaming the shows instead of letting consumers download them to their computers, as both Apple (AAPL) and Amazon (AMZN) do. But the networks and studios, which control pricing, will want to sell the streamed shows at the same price as downloads; they fear that offering them at a different price will force them to go back and rework their existing deals.
Executives at YouTube and TV insist that the disparity is simply a perception problem and cite studies showing that most people who download TV episodes only watch them once, anyway. But that’s a tough sell.
Now, the reason I will occasionally buy shows from iTunes is that I then have the freedom to watch them on my phone, my iPod, my TV, or my laptop. I can watch the show on an airplane because it’s local to my device. Personally, I hate the idea of paying $1.99 for streaming content. So until they figure things out, I’ll definitely stick to free Hulu for the television that I miss and downloading episodes from iTunes for television on the go.
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In the same way as pilots are often available as free [promotional] downloads on iTunes, you can now download the pilot script of Showtime’s new “Nurse Jackie” starring Edit Falco. The free download is available through August 31.
It’s a different way of looking at things – and to a degree, it might also be grabbing a slightly different audience.Or maybe not. After all, if you have an iPhone or iPod Touch, you can install the Kindle App and access the pilot script as well.
According to Ad Age, Showtime is also giving you scheduling information and displaying banner ads on Amazon’s site.
Working with its media shop, Omnicom Group’s OMD, Showtime will use banner ads throughout Amazon.com and on the Kindle storefront to promote the free download, which will be available until Aug. 31. Along with cover art and a title page, the script comes with show scheduling information and a call to action urging readers to visit Sho.com to watch the premiere of “Nurse Jackie.”
It’s an interesting take on mobile. Oh, and in case you thought they were just focusing on the Kindle, you can download a 30-minute edited version of the show, plus behind-the-scenes action, on iTunes.
Acquisitions are part of business, and they can be pivotal for a company looking to quickly expand on its own offerings. Sometimes businesses like to wow the world with their finished product, and don’t publicize the details of an acquisition. Perhaps this was the case with Amie Street, which acquired the online music streaming service Songza some six months ago. After a TechCrunch article revealed the acquisition, I got in touch with the folks at Amie Street to hear the firsthand story behind the deal. Below is the brief interview I had with co-founder Joshua Boltuch of Amie Street:
Kristen Nicole: It’s been found out that Amie St acquired Songza late last year. Why keep it a secret?
There is no big secret. We acquired Song with a bigger vision for the product and we were planning on announcing the acquisition when that vision was ready for the public. From our customer’s perspective, the experience on Songza has not significantly changed since we acquired it so there was no urgency to announce it.
Kristen Nicole: Can you reveal any of the financial details about the deal?
No, although I can say that the unattributed report coming from TechCrunch that the price of the acquisition was for the high six figures or low seven figures is not true.
Kristen Nicole: Songza started out with a different model for streaming music. How are you looking to integrate Songza into your long term plans?
Songza adds another dimension to our company and gives us a great product to build upon in an area that is extremely popular with music fans. Our focus is on providing the most enjoyable music experience possible and compensating artists and labels for their hard work, and we’ll listen to our customer’s (both artists and labels) to tell us what they want and how they want it.
Kristen Nicole: What did your previous partnership with Songza consist of?
It was an affiliate partnership.
Kristen Nicole: Amie St’s model has always been based on supply and demand determining the actual price of a song, which is a model that larger services such as Apple and Amazon are now adopting. How does this furthered trend affect you?
I think it’s good validation of our model and that pricing all songs at $.99 is not the best way to sell digital music. But I wouldn’t say Apple is adopting our model. Pricing songs at $.69, $.99, and $1.29 is not demand based pricing–just three different price points. We are the only store where fans drive the price because we continue to see that empowering fans and including them in the process is the best way to maximize sales.
Kristen Nicole: Your model is also very socially driven. Any plans to incorporate this into aspects of Songza as well?
If you’re talking about incorporating something like the REC system on Amie Street—where you’re rewarded for recommending music with site credit for more downloads—that’s not something that can just be plugged into Songza. But if you mean making Songza more social in general, absolutely. You’ve already seen some small but important improvements on Songza around sharing and connecting members, for example sharing your favorite music via Facebook and Twitter, and there’s certainly bigger improvements on the way.
Back in October, I blogged about Mufin, a music matching engine designed for music enthusiasts and aficionados looking for new artists specifically related to preferred genres and sounds. Mufin uses an “audio fingerprinting” technology used called Audio ID in which you can type in the name of a song you like, or an artist, and find out what else out there is similar.
Now Mufin has released a new music player. Mufin Player could be used as a serious alternative to iTunes, with access to more music for purchase. Similar to the iTunes Genius Sidebar, you can select a song in your library and Mufin will find similar songs based on sound. You have the option, after listening, to purchase songs from Amazon and eMusic. There is also an integration with Ticketmaster.
A neat twist to the music player is the ability to sort your own music library based on sound. Select a track within your music library and the player can find other tracks by sound similarity and create a playlist. The player also integrates with your Mufin online account and pulls its source from the online Mufin engine.
In my testing, I seem to have hit or miss luck with the track similarity and music recommendation engines. Maybe I just listen to odd music. But I’ve read good reviews and if you’re itching to use something other than iTunes, the Mufin Music player might work quite well for you. It was able to access my iPod without a problem. One note: the software is currently PC only.
There’s all sorts of news out there today centering around iTunes and the App Store.
Apple’s Best of 2008: Apple has created a special section of the store with the Best of 2008 in everything it carries. That covers movies, music, audio books, podcasts, free apps, and purchased apps. Not only is Apple offering the best-of in what was downloaded/purchased the most, but they’re also giving their own editorial opinion on several of the options.
Pandora: Everyone’s favorite music app for the iPhone, Pandora, has reached a milestone. Yesterday morning they recorded their 2,000,000 registered user. That’s right – 2 million registered Pandora users on the iPhone. Pretty exciting, yes?
Amazon Mobile: Amazon has released a free iPhone app. I was a little surprised by this. I often use, and have always been impressed by, Amazon’s iPhone site. But this app takes the site even further. The new and “experimental” feature called Amazon Remembers lets users take a photo of a product out in the “real world.” The photo is then uploaded to Amazon and the folks working in the Mechanical Turk program will try to match the product with one from Amazon.com. Don’t get your hopes up too high – the results will take between 5 minutes and 24 hours. But at least you can get price comparisons on the go. You also can easily use your 1-Click shopping settings, search Amazon partners such as Target and Macy’s, and access your wish lists.
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Events, news, apps, and more – let me know at michelle[at]writetech[dot]net, via Twitter, or via Pownce.
Actually, this is sort of brilliant.
Back in October, I 
