In an interesting, if rather small, attempt to build interest in their new Edie Falco series, “Nurse Jackie,” Showtime is offering free downloads of the a script of the first episode to all Kindle owners.
While this doesn’t make up a very large audience, I like the idea of promoting a show with the actual screenplay as opposed to clips or full episodes. Sure, it won’t be for everyone but it is a cool insight into the process of how a show goes from script to screen.
Too bad Showtime seems to be limiting this to Kindle owners. Don’t see why this campaign wouldn’t make sense if it was expanded to, say, all visitors to Amazon.com.
So, the free Kindle app for the iPhone has come out and it raises some interesting questions.
For starters, what do I need a Kindle for now? At almost $400, the Kindle is way more than an impulse buy. Sure that eInk screen is pretty and the battery life is great but it can’t call my girlfriend or surf the web.
Another question, explored in detail over on CNet, is whether or not iPhone/iTouch users will be willing to pay the $9.99 price-point for the books. There are not a lot of ten dollar apps right now and most iPhones I see are loaded with free and cheap apps. So the idea of paying ten bucks for an eBook on the iPhone might be too much to ask.
Of course, Amazon is a little stuck, here since they can’t offer a book for one price on the iPhone and twice as much for the same book on the Kindle, especially with the sync feature. I have argued before that eBooks are overpriced but it is going to take a while longer before we see significant drops in the price of popular titles.
It will be interesting to see how book sales go on for Amazon on the iPhone. The combination of a tight economy and a high pricepoint might be too much for potential readers.
Sure, the Kindle 2 eBook reader from Amazon is over-priced and the eBooks themselves are over-priced but its a device who’s time has come and one that will be with us in some form or another well into the future – or at least until our eyeballs become part of a hard-wired internal computing service…
Much like you can do on your own Mac or PC pretty simply, the Kindle 2 offered the option of having a rather digitized and un-emotive voice “read” to you. This caused a flare-up from some authors who felt this was stepping on their ancillary audiobook rights. It sounded so absurd that I never imagined Amazon would actually back down. I was wrong:
The only significant change to the experimental section in the Kindle 2 was the addition of a text-to-speech capability that allowed the Kindle to read content to its users in one of two synthesized voices. Following an extended outcry from some in the publishing business, however, Amazon has backed down and will allow publishers to retain control over whether to expose their texts to this capability.
While there is nothing especially wrong with letting publishers opt out of this feature, none of their logic makes much sense. First, these synthisized voices are far from what one gets with a true audiobook read by a trained professional. it’s the difference between hearing a symphony recording of Ode to Joy or listening to a synthisized ringtone version.
They would argue that the voices might not be “real” yet but they could be someday. They’re right but it still doesn’t justify their complaints. The truth is that the authors will never stop this process and they are better off understanding that the abilty to listen to a book I bought presumably to read is an added value that can increase sales overall.
I wish Amazon had stood up to the author’s guild but it’s just a matter of time before technology settles the matter for all parties.
Etsy, the Amazon.com of handmade arts and crafts, has begun a short webseries called “Process” that takes a look at the people and process behind some of the products on the site.
These 3-5 minute videos are like a homegrown version of the stoner-favorite Discovery’s “How It’s Made” and had the combined effect of making me want to both own and make what I was seeing in the videos.
Two stories caught my attention, both of which add evidence to the idea that giving your content away for free can actually increase your overall potential for montization – or as I like to say, Cashification.
First, Mashable has some follow-up to Monty Python’s innovative approach to combatting pirated clips on YouTube – they made their own YouTube channel where they posted everything they’d ever done for free. They also provided links to the actual DVDs and CDs for sales at Amazon and iTunes. Can you guess what happened next?
Monty Python’s DVDs climbed to No. 2 on Amazon’s Movies & TV bestsellers list, with increased sales of 23,000 percent.
Still not convinced. How about this from TechDirt in their story about idpendent musician Coery Smith, who both offers his music for download free on his own site and for money via iTunes:
However, as an experiment, they took down the free tracks from Corey’s website for a period of time last summer… and sales on iTunes went down. Once again, this proves how ridiculous the claim is that free songs somehow cannibalize sales.
The fact that there are so many stories like these makes it ever more difficult to accept the current business practices of the major music labels and studios. While they spend more time and money on hunting down and prosecuting their one-time customers their current customers are running our of patience and will jump ship, too.
Not because it let me easily find links to free pirated downloads of copyrighted material, but because it so clearly and aptly shined a light on so many issues facing us in our digital future.
The folks at Amazon clearly didn’t see the value in this sort of statement and have forced the takedown of the plug-in.
“Florian Cramer, the course director of the Media Design program at Piet Zwart, wrote further about the project Friday on Nettime, a mailing list that covers issues of Internet culture and art. Mr. Cramer maintained that Pirates of the Amazon was legal, since the tool only provided simple links between two Web destinations, Amazon.com and the Pirate Bay. He also lamented the hostile reaction from the Internet community, saying that a majority of commentators failed to see the artistic nature of the experiment, and he worried that his students were being censored.
“With the take down notice from Amazon.com, our students have been scared away from pursuing their art, research and learning in our institute,” Mr. Cramer wrote. “We do not want a culture in which students have to preemptively censor their study because their work confronts culture with controversial and challenging issues.”
There is a piece in Wired about the growing popularity of reading E-Books on the iPhone. At the same time sales for Amazon’s Kindle continue to grow rapidly (even though the device itself is far from perfect).
I love so much about E-Books, from their obvious portability to the potential for hyperlinking everything from definitions to other readers comments. Plus there’s the whole zero-environmental impact as compared to the printing and distribution of an actual paperback.
The biggest problem I have with E-Books is that current DRM-related issues and publishers general terror of the future means that is now almost impossible to read a great E-Book then give it to your friend to read. My bookshelf has long been a source and resource for friends looking for something great to read and it gives me great joy to share my books.
Now, it appears those days are numbered unless the publishers figure out what the music labels were late in learning – sharing increases sales.
Nine Inch Nails, and Trent Reznor in particular, has been a pretty outspoken advocate of ditching the “major labels” and embracing digital distribution and all of its opportunities and challenges.
TechDirt has a great update of the some the band’s schemes, including hiding tickets around LA and posting coordinates on their website. Of this, TechDirt says:
“While it may be a little silly, it is yet another way for Reznor to build up a really loyal fanbase. He’s making being a fan fun.”
I think that’s a brilliant observation. They’re making being a fan fun. Think about that. How often are things about being a fan not fun? Standing in line in the rain is not fun. Having to deal with TicketMaster is definitely NOT fun. By making “fun” a key part of being a fan, Nine Inch Nails is showing just how they’ve remained relevant for so long in such a volatile market.
According to ArsTech the guys have added indie label The Orchard and over 1 million new tunes. Says The Orchard:
“The partnership is a significant validation of the consumer-empowering business model AmieStreet.com is pioneering,” The Orchard says in its press release. “On AmieStreet.com, songs are priced based on their demand, and customers receive money for more downloads when they recommend their favorite songs. By allowing consumers to drive the price of music, a song’s price becomes a measure of its popularity, enabling people to discover new music with more ease and convenience.”
Wired founding editor Kevin Kelly was instrumental in this change of heart, claiming that Pogue had no personal data to back up his claims:
“Take one of your books you have historical sales data for, release a viral PDF version and then measure what happens. Then either celebrate or curse the results — but at least it will be based on evidence.”
Well, Pogue is going quite that far:
“Early next month, the company [Pogue's publisher O’Reilly] will also start selling electronic versions of certain books with no copy protection. For a single price (cheaper than the printed-book price), the package will include the book in three formats: PDF, Mobipub (compatible with the Amazon Kindle), and Epub (soon to be compatible with the Sony Reader).
Anyway, I’ve agreed to try an experiment involving one of my books (”Windows Vista: The Missing Manual”): to offer it as part of that buy-the-electronic-versions program.”
Glad to see Pogue staying open to these shifts in the winds and can’t wait to see what the data shows. The biggest challenge facing those looking to try out new business models is that there is very little previous date from which to draw.
In an interesting, if rather small, attempt to build interest in their new Edie Falco series, “Nurse Jackie,” Showtime is offering free downloads of the a script of the first episode to all Kindle owners.![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=6c80e343-5a27-4532-a3ab-0b2240bab456)
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June 5, 2009 10:03 am | 
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