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  • Spotify Gained Two Million Paid Subscriptions This Year

    Spotify Gained Two Million Paid Subscriptions This Year

    Music streaming service Spotify has just announced its current user stats, and they show that the company has increased its paid user base by two million this year alone.

    According to Spotify, it can now boast 5 million paid subscriptions globally. One million of those paid subscriptions comes from U.S. users.

    Back in July, Spotify announced 4 million paid subscriptions and in January the figure was 3 million. At this rate, Spotify is growing roughly one million paying customers every six months.

    Of course, Spotify is not only concerned with paid subscribers. Any non-paying user is a potential paying user, any Spotify has plenty of those too. According to the company, it now sports 20 million total active users who have generated over a billion playlists. Back in July, it was 15 million total users – so Spotify basically has the same paid to non-paid user ratio as it did six months ago (3.75 to 4).

    Last month, Spotify attracted a $100 million round of funding from Goldman Sachs and Coca-Cola, valuing the company at $3 billion. Just a few days later, we learned that the company was finally working on a web player that will roll out in 2013.

    Another interesting stat from Spotify’s announcement? Apparently, users have created more than 4 million different playlists that a simply titled “Love.” I’ll just leave that there with no comment.

  • Android Developers Can Now Offer Free Trials For Subscriptions On Google Play

    Android Developers Can Now Offer Free Trials For Subscriptions On Google Play

    Android developers are presented with a number of ways to monetize their content on the Google Play store. One of the more prominent methods is through the use of subscriptions. In essence, a player pays a monthly fee for a set amount of microtransaction content. Now developers can hook potential subscribers with free stuff.

    Google recently added a new section to the billing subscription guide that details how developers can offer free trials for their subscriptions. The free trial offer is extremely open ended and allows developers to offer seven days or more of free subscription goodness.

    For users, initiating the free trial will require them to “purchase” the full subscription through the in-app purchasing system. This means that users must have a valid form of payment as their card starts getting billed as soon as the free trial ends. The user will not be charged whatsoever though, and the transaction will appear as $0.00 on a developer’s transaction records.

    Interestingly enough, canceling the free trial is handled a bit differently from canceling a subscription. Ordinarily, the subscription benefits would continue throughout the period even if the user canceled the subscription at the beginning of their subscription period. Canceling the free trial will end all benefits immediately.

    Developers who already offer subscriptions have nothing to lose from adding free trials. Implementing the free trial only takes a quick edit of the subscription in your product list. Free trials must be set for a minimum of seven days, but can be as long as you want after that. Developers can also only create one free trial period per subscription product.

  • MoviePass Offers Unlimited Movie Subscription for Theatres

    MoviePass Offers Unlimited Movie Subscription for Theatres

    Now that the 3D movie fad is dying out, studios and movie theaters will have to find a way to compete with large HD televisions and services such as Netflix. With the home movie-viewing experience now rivaling that of theaters, something will have to give: either movie theaters will die out, or their business model will change substantially.

    Today, a company called MoviePass has launched a service that theatre owners should have been offering years ago. The service is a Netflix-like unlimited pass to view movies in theaters. For a monthly fee, subscribers will be able to view one movie per day at any theater that takes credit cards. The 3D versions of movies are not included. MoviePass will, at first, offer pricing based on location, but the national average is $30 a month.

    “MoviePass gives moviegoers the opportunity to see the movies they want, at the theaters they want – perfect for film enthusiasts who are at the heart of Hollywood’s economic engine,” said Stacy Spikes, CEO and cofounder of MoviePass. “Moviegoers now have more at-home entertainment options than ever before, and MoviePass is dedicated to driving traffic back to theaters and reducing the friction of moviegoing.”

    MoviePass is rolling out their service Gmail-style with an invite-your-friends system. MoviePass also has an iPhone app that is required for subscribers to “check-in” at a movie theatre and unlock their MoviePass debit card. The company has stated that an Android app is in the works. A video demonstrating how the MoviePass app works can be seen below.

  • Spotify Generates Just Enough Profit from Subscriptions to Pay for Free Service

    Spotify Generates Just Enough Profit from Subscriptions to Pay for Free Service

    Spotify’s business model is pretty simple: Offer a large (and sometimes fully unrestricted) free streaming service to users, and support that partially with ads. The hope is that enough users will want to pay the monthly subscription in order to do away with all of the advertisements, as well as to unlock features like Spotify mobile.

    British media research firm Ender’s Analysis looked at Spotify’s two-tired business plan, and found that the company is kind of locked in limbo – at least in terms of profits.

    According to their analysis, Spotify rakes in a gross profit of $76 million from subscriptions, but lost roughly the same amount in its free, ad-supported tier. ““Spotify is now finding that legitimate free services can lure fans away from piracy, but at the expense of investor capital,” said Ender’s.

    As of right now in the U.S., Spotify users have full access to the entire catalog – something that’s not available to users in many parts of the world. U.S. users can get a basic subscription for $4.99 a month, which will get rid of the ads. They can fork over a little more ($9.99 a month) and gain access to Spotify Premium, which adds mobile support and offline support.

    But the company is still growing, and the free version is very attractive to music lovers. It gets people in the door. You’d have to think that eventually, Spotify would disallow any user from having full, unrestricted access to the catalog for free -even with ads. That would be a huge incentive for users to at least purchase the $4.99 subscription.

    [Ender’s Analysis via The New York Times]

  • EA Looking At Other Games For Premium Subscriptions

    EA Looking At Other Games For Premium Subscriptions

    We were hoping this wouldn’t happen when EA announced that they were launching a premium service for Battlefield 3. Then the announcement came out that EA/DICE has sold 800,000 subscribers the Battlefield 3 Premium service. Now it look as though EA is looking into other franchises that it currently has to see if the “premium” or subscription based service will be worth the effort.

    In an interview with Games Industry International, EA Labels boss Frank Gibeau said:

    “We’ve launched subscription businesses in our other categories. We had EA Sports subscription before Elite came out, so adding that component to the design is not a reaction. It’s something we’d always been considering and we had been looking at. We didn’t have it ready for launch and it took us some time to get it prepped. Having said that, they [Activision] did something really innovative and if your competitor does something innovative and you think it applies to what you can do, then there’s no harm in doing that,” he said. “This is an industry where people have a lot of oneupsmanship and if somebody innovates, you match it or you exceed it.”

    With the success that EA has achieved with first its sports subscription and now Battlefield 3 Premium, we can all look forward to the day when we get the Need For Speed Premium emails from Origin. Then what is next is obvious. I think that eventually you will only be able to purchase DLC in gigantic $50-$60 “premium” packs. so that the developers can “justify’ the fact that they “only” charge you $60 to “buy” a game. Lots of quotations expresses the severe sarcasm in my remarks.

  • YouTube Subscriptions May be the Future

    YouTube Subscriptions May be the Future

    Reuters is reporting that YouTube may consider selling subscriptions to viewers sometime in the near future. Speaking at the Reuters Media and Technology Summit, Salar Kamangar, CEO of YouTube and senior vice president of video at Google, said that smaller cable channels might have a place on YouTube, and could sell subscriptions through an a la carte option. He also stated that some of YouTube’s “top content creators” want to be able to sell subscriptions as well. Kamangar said the company is talking about subscription options “very carefully.”

    The cable channels Kamangar mentioned are channels that have a small audience, and so don’t command many, if any, fees from cable distributors. These channels would lose little by offering their content directly through a YouTube subscription. Obviously, this is a shot across the bow of the cable industry, which is fighting as hard as it can to not simply become another utility industry, pumping out internet connections to homes the way electricity companies or water companies provide their products. Just this week, the U.S. Department of Justice began investigating cable companies for possible anti-competitive practices with regards to Netflix and Hulu.

    As for content creators on YouTube, it’s likely that few of them would be able to charge subscription fees on their own. Groups of them could team up, though, creating their own channels. Recently, more for-profit YouTube channel ventures have been popping up, such as Felecia Day’s Geek and Sundry.

    I suspect Kamangar said YouTube was discussing the prospect “very carefully” because it knows the uproar that would be caused if YouTube users were suddenly asked to pay for content that used to be free. Still, if YouTube can gather up enough quality content to make it work, it would be another step closer to breaking the cable company monopolies in the U.S. And when that finally happens, premium-quality channels such as HBO can finally be free to sell their content directly to willing customers, even without YouTube.

    (via Reuters)

  • In-App Subscriptions Now Available On Google Play

    In-App Subscriptions Now Available On Google Play

    Android has a problem – it can’t monetize itself very well. Some people blame it on the fact that the Android market is severely fragmented while others blame it on Google limiting the amount of options that developers can use to monetize their apps. Google is at least going to fix the latter starting today.

    An announcement went out today signaling the beginning of in-app subscriptions for Android apps on Google Play. Previously, the only way to monetize an Android app through Google Play was to either charge up front for it or use in-app billing which allowed people to buy items in game through Google Wallet.

    The next logical step is of course in-app subscriptions and Google is happy to comply. This means that developers can now set up subscription fees from inside their apps. Developers can now charge for monthly to annual fees through their apps for the services it provides. This kind of monetization is especially helpful for apps like mobile newspapers.

    Google uses the example of gaming on Android. For a game that required a monthly fee in the past, the player would have to enter their credentials and pay for the game each month. Now with in-app subscriptions through Google Play, they can set up a monthly subscription and have Google Play take care of the rest.

    The new feature is user friendly as well. All user have to do is visit My Apps in the Google Play store app to see any recurring subscriptions. They can cancel at any time. The only non-user friendly bit is that it auto-renews subscriptions so it’s up to the user to remember whenever a renewal is on the horizon.

    The launch of this new service is also super helpful to developers. They can use a new HTTP-based publisher API to connect their Android apps with their Web apps. Users can subscribe via Google Play and the Web app will recognize that subscription. For example, MMOs would be able to feature a mobile component that carries over to the Web experience and vice versa.

    Google Play subscriptions are now available to all developers. You can get started by checking out the documentation and sample app. Subscriptions will be available to all users running Google Play 3.5 and above.

  • YouTube Considers Subscription Content

    YouTube Considers Subscription Content

    YouTube might be considering adding subscription content to its streaming platform, in a bid to attract video from larger media corporations. Any potential deal wouldn’t affect existing content with any sort of paywall, but YouTube might seek to incorporate live sports, music and entertainment offerings, according to the New York Post.

    It was recently reported that historically free video platform Hulu is moving toward having its users authenticate their accounts by entering in a pay-service account number from satellite or cable providers. Pay service Netflix has produced a new season of Arrested Development, and even Amazon has been said to be in talks regarding creating an original series of its own. No word on whether YouTube might delve into creating original content, but big media companies have been weary of posting their shows on the platform for free, considering YouTube’s ad-only business model, regardless of the fact that its 800 million users stream about three billion hours of video per month, with projected ad sales of $2 billion to $3 billion per year.

    Google-owned YouTube presently has a movie rental service, and also streams pay-per-view cricket games via a partnership with WillowTV. CEO Salar Kamangar hinted at a possible premium subscription service at an industry event in January – “We’re a media platform and we want to have a business model that media partners demand.”

    A YouTube spokesperson commented on the matter, “We have long maintained that different content requires different types of payment models. The important thing is that, regardless of the model, our creators succeed on the platform and viewers find more content to watch”, adding “There are a lot of our content creators that believe they would benefit from subscriptions.”

  • The Daily Gets An iPhone App, Cheaper Subscriptions

    The Daily Gets An iPhone App, Cheaper Subscriptions

    Just over a year after its launch last February, news magazine app The Daily has finally made its way to the iPhone. The app went live in the iOS App Store today. The iPhone app has a separate, cheaper set of subscription options than the iPad version. You can pay monthly for $1.99 per month, or get a full year for $19.99. On the iPad version of the app, individual issues of the magazine are $0.99, and a full year’s subscription is $39.99.

    The app is not universal. That is to say, the iPhone app is separate from the iPad version. For those who have subscriptions in the iPad version, you get the content on the iPhone version for free. All you have to do is sign into the iPhone app with the same credentials you use in the iPad version.

    The Daily launched in February of 2011. It was the first iPad-only news magazine, and introduced in-app subscriptions to iOS apps. It has proven to be a fairly popular news magazine, and was even the first news organization to publish the name of one of the women who filed a sexual harassment complaint against former Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain.

    The Daily for iPhone is available as a free download from the iOS App Store. Subscriptions are purchased from within the app.

    Are you a subscriber to The Daily? Are you excited to see the magazine making its way to the iPhone? Let us know what you think in the comments.

  • Netflix Stock Drops, Subscription Growth Projected to Slow

    Netflix Stock Drops, Subscription Growth Projected to Slow

    Netflix stock has been up and down lately, and it’s easy to understand why. Before the infamous summer of 2011, people always spoke very highly about Netflix, its ability to maintain steady growth, and the company’s desire to expand its streaming service into international markets. After a series of serious and unfortunate missteps — including the short-lived decision to split its DVD and streaming services into two separate entities — the company can’t seem to catch a break. Even with a strong ending to the first quarter, stocks still dropped during after-hours trading on Monday.

    Investors seem a little concerned about a forecast that suggests subscription growth will slow during the second quarter, despite the fact that Netflix added nearly 1.7 million members since the beginning of the year. Traditionally, April through June has been a particularly slow time for the company in terms of drawing new subscribers into its fold. Analysts projects that Netflix will only add a paltry 200,000 new users during the 2Q, a fact which may have caused the company’s stocks to take an estimated 16 drop yesterday.

    First quarter revenue, however, was up 21% from last year.

    CEO Reed Hastings is hoping to combat the subscription issue by focusing on original content, a strategy which includes bringing the cult television series “Arrested Development” back for another full season. Unfortunately, this particular show doesn’t start production until sometime this summer, which means that Hastings and company will have to wait until sometime next year to see if their pricy gamble will pay off.

    The company’s recent problems haven’t stopped Hastings from taking home an incredible amount of money as compensation for hurting the company’s reputation. Between his stock options and his regular salary, Hastings will reportedly bring home nearly $9.3 million. Not bad for a guy who alienated his subscribers by increasing their monthly rates and confusing the bejesus out of everyone by attempting to split the company into two entities.

    All of this bad news is going down right as other companies are looking to take a section of the market away from Netflix. Amazon, Wal-Mart, and Comcast are offering streaming services, though none of them has the selection that Netflix currently offers.

    For the time being, anyway.

  • E-Book Subscriptions: More Publishers are Adding Titles to ebrary’s Academic Complete

    E-Book Subscriptions: More Publishers are Adding Titles to ebrary’s Academic Complete

    Publishers that distribute e-books to libraries under subscription in addition to other models will receive the most value, according to ebrary which is owned by ProQuest. Wiley along with over 50 newly signed publishers such as American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Leuven University Press, and University of Illinois Press will distribute e-books in Academic Complete as well as other models including perpetual archive, patron driven acquisition, and short-term loan. Academic Complete subscribers will soon benefit from an expanding selection of more than 75,000 quality e-books – including 1,800 new titles from Wiley – from over 500 participating publishers.

    Distributing certain types of e-books like backlist titles via Academic Complete is advantageous in that publishers can participate in ebrary’s new approach to e-book acquisition and distribution. This approach includes working with libraries to leverage Academic Complete subscription usage statistics by discipline to determine where to strategically apply additional budgets to other acquisition models. It also involves streamlining and automating the ordering process through book vendors such as YBP.

    Academic Complete was the industry’s first e-book subscription product and has been serving as a foundational collection to thousands of libraries across the globe for almost ten years.

    Carole Correa-Morris, Head of Acquisitions at San Jose State University in an ebrary press release issued April 10 said that, “…We have been examining our Academic Complete usage statistics to strategically expand our patron driven acquisition program. By focusing on higher use subjects, we can better determine which titles to add to our consideration pool and only purchase those that are used.”

    Kevin Sayar, President and General Manager of ebrary claims that by, “utilizing a variety of models including subscription, publishers can more fully monetize their monographic content, and libraries can affordably acquire the e-books researchers require.”

    According to one of ebrary’s PowerPoints, U.S. e-book sales are expected to exceed more than $3 billion by 2015 and they are the fastest growing segment of the publishing industry. By 2015, public libraries are expected to increase their spending on e-books by 296%.

    Hopefully these strategies will help public libraries keep up with the shift from print to e-books and save patrons a considerable amount of money.

  • WoW Producer Admits Star Wars Has Hurt Subscriptions

    WoW Producer Admits Star Wars Has Hurt Subscriptions

    It is rare for a dominant game developer to acknowledge the competition. It is even rarer when that developer is Blizzard, who has controlled the MMORPG market since its debut seven years ago.

    At World of Warcraft’s peak, it boasted 12 million subscribers, that was a year and a half ago. At the end of last year, the company claimed a little over 10 million.

    In an interview with Eurogamer, senior producer at Blizzard, John Lagrave, said a recent dip in subscribers “has to at least be attributable to The Old Republic.”

    Star Wars: The Old Republic launched last year in December. Blizzard hasn’t released any subscription numbers since then, but they must be even lower if they attributing decline to the Old Republic.

    Lagrave says, “Of course people are trying Star Wars – our development team are trying Star Wars! I’m one of the few people who’s still playing it actually, but yeah we’ve seen a dip in subs. It certainly has to at least be attributable to The Old Republic, but it’s also attributable to people who want to wait and get Mists of Pandaria, so it’s not surprising.”

    Adding, “We don’t have a lock on all the best games in the world – Skyrim was an amazing game.”

    When Largrave was asked if they will do anything to draw more people in, he said they could consider extending the length of the trial period to level 40, or even 60. Right now players are allowed to sample the game up to level 20 on a trial bases.

    But as far as doing away with the paid subscription model, Largrave says that is right out. “[World of Warcraft is] certainly a very cheap form of entertainment. So yeah, we’re comfortable with the subscription system. I won’t say never on that, but gosh, not now, and it’s been seven years! You’d think we’d have gotten there before now, so I don’t think so.”

    The company has certainly squashed most competition with this model, but it’s never seen a major threat. Certainly not a threat with an already huge fan base like Star Wars or Bioware. In just a month, the game drew 1.7 million subscribers. Still minor in comparison to WoW’s well established numbers, but still a credible threat.

  • New MLB App launches Today Featuring Subscription Plan

    New MLB App launches Today Featuring Subscription Plan

    Major League Baseball has thrown its fans a curveball. Starting today the new MLB.TV app is going to be available on the App Store and Android Marketplace. This time there is a twist. The basic app is completely free to download, where in the past it was $14.99 to download. MLB now offeres a subscription service. You can pay a 1 time fee of $14.99 and get live gameday audio of every team, pitch tracking, and play-by-play updates, plus a free live video stream of one game per day, as selected by MLB. Or you can pay a monthly subscription of $2.99 a month on a month to month basis and get all the stuff that is offered in the one time payment version. Here is the kicker. In the past you had to pay $14.99 each for the phone app and the tablet app. Now the $14.99 fee is on your account. Pay it once and it is good across all platforms. Pay $129.99 for MLB.TV Premium and get the $14.99 option for free. If you are a huge baseball fan like I am, then you will agree that this new payment plan is a great way to save a potential $30 a year.

    Also launching this season is a separate location-based app. You can check in for rewards and team offers, get parking information and concourse maps, and have access to mobile food ordering in any ballparks that offer such features. Other features include closed captioning, the ability to send a text message to security officials, and social sharing to your networks like Facebook and Twitter.

    We’re having an event tonight in NYC to unveil 2012 @MLBTV + @MLB.com At Bat. Should be great. Or not. We’ll see. 21 hours ago via Social Marketing Hub ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

  • Blockbuster Launching Netflix Rival Subscription Streaming Service?

    Blockbuster Launching Netflix Rival Subscription Streaming Service?

    It looks like Blockbuster might be jumping into the subscription streaming market, adding another player into a growing field that is getting more crowded by the minute.

    Of course Netflix is the biggest player when it comes to streaming video subscriptions, but you also have players like Hulu and Amazon stealing some of the pie. Apparently, Blockbuster thinks it can compete, because according to CNN Money, they plan on announcing all of this on Friday.

    Blockbuster, which was purchased by DISH Network back in April, is set to hold a press conference tomorrow entitled “A Stream Come True.” Here, they are widely expected to unveil their new streaming service.

    If true, Blockbuster has picked a rather interesting time to announce all of this. The past few weeks have been hell for Netflix, as a series of changes and announcements has shaken investors and customers alike.

    On September 1st, the new pricing structure went into effect. No more $9.99 plans that include unlimited streaming and 1-DVD-at-a-time service – those plans are now separate and both cost $7.99. That drew some backlash, to say the least.

    Just this week, CEO Reed Hasting posted a public apology to the Netflix blog, stating that they had made mistakes with how they handled the changes. The only problem was that enveloped in the apology was the news that Netflix is splitting off its DVD service entirely, into another company called Qwikster.

    Between those events, Netflix announced that they would be losing all their Starz content after renegotiations failed.

    Apparently, Blockbuster wants to try and swoop down when the beast is vulnerable. It wouldn’t be the first time, although this announcement would be significantly bigger than any other opportunistic moves they have made in the past.

    After Netflix announced their price hike in July, Blockbuster went on a campaign, complete with a blog post called “Blockbuster Rescues Furious Netflix Customers.” They offered their Total Access DVD subscription as a free trial for those who wanted to abandon Netflix.

    Blockbuster has never offered a streaming subscription. They have their aforementioned DVD subscription service called Total Access, and they stream movies via their website as well – but on a pay-per-view basis. A flat-rate unlimited plan would put them in direct competition with Netflix.

    Now, if only Blockbuster could combine their upcoming streaming plan with their DVD plan as a bundle for, let’s say, $9.99?

  • Glenn Beck Launches GBTV, a Subscription Internet Network

    Glenn Beck Launches GBTV, a Subscription Internet Network

    The Glenn Beck Show is moving to the internet. Not just his primetime program, but his radio program and other original content will all be found on GBTV, officially announced today on his website.

    Glenn Beck had been a breakout star for the Fox News Channel, maintaining the third highest rated show on all of cable news. Rumors of tensions between Beck and Fox began to circulate and in April he announced that he would be ending The Glenn Beck Show on Fox. Though still popular, his ratings have taken a plunge and the show has been hit with advertiser boycotts due to its controversial nature. Many say that he was edged out due to these reasons. Others contend that Beck wanted a way out of what he felt was a restrictive media machine.

    Today, Beck announced his official move to the web with the launch of GBTV. Glenn Beck TV will be a paid service, costing regular members $4.95 a month or $49.95 a year and plus members $9.95 a month or $99.95 a year.

    The big deal about GBTV is that it will house his live show, which looks to be the carryover of his Fox News Show. The two-hour show will air weekdays from 5 to 7 pm starting September 12th. All content will be in HD and available on the iPhone, iPad, and Roku.

    If users pay more for the plus subscription, they will get access to the video broadcast of Beck’s 3-hour radio program airing from 9 am to 12 pm, “exclusive documentaries” and other features like access to “The 4th Hour,” a continuation of the radio program with special guests and call-in segments.

    Glenn Beck’s media company Mercury Radio Arts has already been providing this type of content on the internet. Mercury Radio Arts runs theblaze.com, a conservative news blog. In March of 2010, they announced “Insider Extreme,” a subscription service that granted access to the video broadcast of Beck’s radio program as well as the “exclusive documentaries.” They report that 80,000 people are currently singed up for this service. It looks like GBTV is an expansion on this, merging all of that content into the plus version of its subscription – thus upgrading insider extreme members to GBTV plus members. The new, and most important aspect of GBTV looks to be the new evening show.

    “GBTV is the future,” said Glenn Beck. “The confines of traditional media no longer apply. GBTV is about getting active in the community, participating in stories, and finding new ways to deliver news, information and entertainment directly to the audience.”

    The internet is the perfect place for a guy like Beck to broadcast. He will now have the ability to say whatever he wants, without the fear of butting heads with Fox News, and losing tons of advertisers. Plus he already has a loyal following and has basically become his own brand. Time will tell, however, if Beck’s audience will be willing to make the switch to the internet. The subscription part won’t be a problem, I presume, as his fans are very enthusiastic about him.

    No matter what you think about Beck, his politics and his controversies, his transition is probably a very smart play. The potential is there for GBTV to bring in loads of revenue for Beck. If 80,000 people are already signed up for Insider Extreme, that’s around 10 million dollars taken in already.

    Say Beck just gets a small chunk of his million-plus viewers to jump on board GBTV? Forbes points out that if only 50,000 sign up, even at the lower $4.95 monthly rate, Beck will be taking in more than he currently makes from his Fox News show. Most of Beck’s revenue comes from radio and book sales, so any additional money from the primetime show on GBTV will be a bonus.

    Beck’s move to the internet also raises the more general question – Is the internet going to become the legitimate new outlet for big name news and radio personalities? If anything, Howard Stern has proven that it can be done –

    I’d hope @howardstern’d prove the internet ready to support a star. Now Glenn Beck will try w/his subscription show: http://nyti.ms/lggtBf 2 hours ago via Echofon · powered by @socialditto

    The benefits of the internet are also the drawback for media personalities: they’re on their own. If they constitute enough of a draw for viewers, it can really work. Then they have the freedom to run things how they want to run them. I guess we’ll see if Glenn Beck’s viewership was tied more to the man himself or the power of the Fox News umbrella.

    Beck will host a live kickoff event tomorrow at 7 pm ET to explain GBTV, available on glennbeck.com and his Facebook page. His last show at Fox is reported to be airing June 30th.

  • Apple In-App Subscriptions Not for SaaS Apps, According to Steve Jobs

    Apple In-App Subscriptions Not for SaaS Apps, According to Steve Jobs

    Apple’s subscription policy has been the subject of a great deal of controversy since it was introduced a week ago. It has been heavily in the spotlight this week, with app developer Readability having posted an open letter to Apple, 

    In the letter, Readability creator Rich Ziade wrote:

    We’re obviously disappointed by this decision, and surprised by the broad language. By including "functionality, or services," it’s clear that you intend to pursue any subscription-based apps, not merely those of services serving up content. Readability’s model is unique in that 70% of our service fees go directly to writers and publishers. If we implemented In App purchasing, your 30% cut drastically undermines a key premise of how Readability works. 
    Rich Ziade of Readability gives it to Apple
    Before we cool down and come to our senses, we might as well share how we’re feeling right now: we believe that your new policy smacks of greed. Subscription apps like ours represent a tiny sliver of app sales that represent a tiny sliver of your revenue. You’ve achieved much of your success in hardware sales by cultivating an incredibly impressive app ecosystem. Every iPad or iPhone TV ad puts the apps developed by companies like ours front and center. It was a healthy and mutually beneficial dynamic: apps like ours get exposure and you get to show the world how these apps make your hardware shine. That’s why we’re a bit baffled here. 

    To be clear, we believe you have every right to push forward such a policy. In our view, it’s your hardware and your channel and you can put forth any policy you like. But to impose this course on any web service or web application that delivers any value outside of iOS will only discourage smaller ventures like ours to invest in iOS apps for our services. As far as Readability is concerned, our response is fairly straight-forward: go the other way… towards the web. 

    Now MacRumors has published an email allegedly from Steve jobs, which was in response to an anonymous reader of that publication. The email simply said, "We created subscriptions for publishing apps, not SaaS apps."

    TechCrunch’s MG Siegler says in a post at ParisLemon that he’s heard of some SaaS apps that have already been rejected for not using Apple’s in-app subscriptions. 

    Upon announcement of the subscription service, Jobs simply said, "Our philosophy is simple — when Apple brings a new subscriber to the app, Apple earns a 30 percent share; when the publisher brings an existing or new subscriber to the app, the publisher keeps 100 percent and Apple earns nothing. All we require is that, if a publisher is making a subscription offer outside of the app, the same (or better) offer be made inside the app."

    Apple’s policy is reportedly being monitored by antitrust regulators.

  • Apple Subscription Service Being Monitored By Antitrust Regulators

    Apple Subscription Service Being Monitored By Antitrust Regulators

    Earlier this week, Apple introduced its Subscription service for the App Store. Immediately, it was met with waves of criticism (though it’s certainly had its share of defenders). It didn’t take long at all for whispers of antitrust to start going around. The Wall Street Journal started that off, though nothing had been made of the situation by regulators at the time. 

    Now, the publication is reporting that regulators are keeping an eye on it:

    A spokeswoman for the European Commission, the European Union’s executive arm, said Thursday that the commission was aware of the new subscription service and was "carefully monitoring the situation."

    The Justice Department and the FTC are both interested in examining whether Apple is running afoul of U.S. antitrust laws by funneling media companies’ customers into the payment system for its iTunes store—and taking a 30% cut, the people familiar with the situation said. The agencies both enforce federal antitrust laws and would have to decide which one of them would take the lead in the matter.

    WebProNews spoke with Pam Horan, President of the Online Publishers Association, which represents a slew of major content providers (including the Wall Street Journal Digital Network).  

    Pam Horan of the OPA Talks Apple and subscription model"Right now, one the most audible reactions I’m hearing from publishers is: what does this mean for the consumer? The concern is that Apple’s latest subscription policy limits one of the major needs that all publishers look to address – seamlessly offering their content on whatever platform the consumer wants to access it on," she told us. 

    "Based on Apple’s policy, specifically, publishers may no longer provide links in their apps (to a web site, for example) which allow the customer to purchase content or subscriptions outside of the app," she added. "Limiting the publisher to include links with offers or offering direct bundles through their own website, makes authenticating the consumer impossible. Apple’s one click access is great, but consumers have to realize that they are sacrificing portability." 

    "The second issue is that Apple’s doesn’t allow publishers access to any consumer information – from who is purchasing to what articles and tools that [they] are finding valuable based on their use," she said. "Consumer insights are paramount for publishers to be able to offer consumers the products they want. We would hope that Apple would take these issues into consideration to ensure that we are all serving their consumers’ best interest." 

    The Federal Trade Commission, the Justice Department, and Apple have all yet to comment on the matter. 

    Apple CEO Steve Jobs said upon announcement of the service, "Our philosophy is simple — when Apple brings a new subscriber to the app, Apple earns a 30 percent share; when the publisher brings an existing or new subscriber to the app, the publisher keeps 100 percent and Apple earns nothing," said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. "All we require is that, if a publisher is making a subscription offer outside of the app, the same (or better) offer be made inside the app."

    Under Apple’s plan, publishers set the price and length of the subscription, users choose the length of the subscription and are charged based on how long they subscribe.

  • Thoughts on Apple Subscriptions and Google OnePass from President of the Online Publishers Association

    Thoughts on Apple Subscriptions and Google OnePass from President of the Online Publishers Association

    Over the past week, Apple announced its subscriptions plan for the App Store, following the model of "The Daily". Under the plan, publishers set the price and length of the subscription, users choose the length of the subscription and are charged based on how long they subscribe. Apple keeps 30% of the revenue. Google also announced a subscription-based service for publishers called OnePass. More on that here

    Pam Horan, President of the Online Publishers Association (OPA), shared some thoughts with us on both Apple’s and Google’s new subscription services. If you’re unfamiliar with the OPA, it’s a non-profit trade group representing content providers like ABCNews.com, About.com, BBC.com, Bloomberg.com, CBS Interactive, CNBC, CNN.com, Comcast Interactive Media, Condé Nast, ConsumerReports.org, Disney Interactive Media, ESPN.com, Forbes.com, FoxNews.com, Gannett Digital, Gawker Media, Harvard Business Publishing, The Huffington Post, Hearst Coproration, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal Digital Network, and many more.  

    Regarding Apple’s, Horan says,  "Right now, one the most audible reactions I’m hearing from publishers is: what does this mean for the consumer? The concern is that Apple’s latest subscription policy limits one of the major needs that all publishers look to address – seamlessly offering their content on whatever platform the consumer wants to access it on." 

    Pam Horan of the OPA Talks Apple and Google subscription models"Based on Apple’s policy, specifically, publishers may no longer provide links in their apps (to a web site, for example) which allow the customer to purchase content or subscriptions outside of the app," she continues. "Limiting the publisher to include links with offers or offering direct bundles through their own website, makes authenticating the consumer impossible. Apple’s one click access is great, but consumers have to realize that they are sacrificing portability."

    "The second issue is that Apple’s doesn’t allow publishers access to any consumer information – from who is purchasing to what articles and tools that [they] are finding valuable based on their use," she adds. "Consumer insights are paramount for publishers to be able to offer consumers the products they want. We would hope that Apple would take these issues into consideration to ensure that we are all serving their consumers’ best interest."

    On Google’s new service, Horan says, "At first pass, the Google OnePass model may address several of the concerns that publishers have with the Apple subscription model unveiled earlier this week. Google is sharing the customer’s name, ZIP code and e-mail address (unless the customer opts out) which will help publishers gain the valuable consumer insight that is necessary to help them evolve their products."

    "Another difference between this and the Apple offering is the pricing structure – it appears more flexible as does the ability to purchase bundling solutions," she adds. "With OnePass, publishers can try different models, like subscriptions, so-called metered access and selling single articles. The service also lets publishers give free access to existing subscribers."

    Horan is not alone in her analysis. Google’s model seems to be getting a lot better feedback than Apple’s, though Apple’s model certainly has its supporters. Apple’s model has actually been tied to antitrust concerns, though nothing has been made of such concerns on the parts of either Apple or the Justice Department. 

  • Google Launches Own Subscription Service

    Google Launches Own Subscription Service

    Google has introduced a new subscription service aimed at allowing publishers to offer their content to people on a wide range of devices.

    The new service called Google One Pass allows publishers to control how and when they charge for content. Users who buy One Pass can access content on tablets, smartphones and websites using a single sign-in with an email and password.

     

     

    The move by Google puts it in direct competition with Apple’s subscription service announced yesterday.  With Google One Pass, Google will get 10 percent of revenues, compared to Apple’s 30 percent for its subscriptions.

    Google says it launched One Pass because it “cares a lot about helping high quality content thrive online and about the future of journalism.”

    Initial publishers participating in One Pass include German companies Axel Springer AG, Focus Online and Stern.de. Other publishers include Media General, NouvelObs, Popular Science, Prisa and Rust Communications.

    Google One Pass is currently available for publishers in Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the U.K. and the U.S.

     

  • Apple Subscriptions Raise Antitrust Questions

    Apple Subscriptions Raise Antitrust Questions

    This week, Apple launched a subscription service for the app store. It enables all publishers of content-based apps (including magazines, newspapers, video, music, etc.) to follow the model of the recently launched The Daily from New Corp. 

    According to a report from the Wall Street Journal, the service has raised concerns about antitrust, though neither Apple nor the Justice Department has commented on the matter. 

    "Our philosophy is simple—when Apple brings a new subscriber to the app, Apple earns a 30 percent share; when the publisher brings an existing or new subscriber to the app, the publisher keeps 100 percent and Apple earns nothing," said Apple CEO Steve Jobs upon the announcement. "All we require is that, if a publisher is making a subscription offer outside of the app, the same (or better) offer be made inside the app, so that customers can easily subscribe with one-click right in the app. We believe that this innovative subscription service will provide publishers with a brand new opportunity to expand digital access to their content onto the iPad, iPod touch and iPhone, delighting both new and existing subscribers."
    Steve Jobs talks Subscriptions on Apple App Store apps

     The WSJ reports

    Experts said that the first step in an antitrust analysis is to determine whether Apple is a dominant player in the market, which, in turn, requires an assessment of the relevant market at issue.

    Publishers, for example, might claim that Apple dominates the market for consumer tablet computers and that it has allegedly used that commanding position to restrict competition. Apple, in turn, might define the market to include all digital and print media, and counter that any publisher not happy with Apple’s terms is free to still reach its customers through many other print and digital outlets.

    It’s certainly worth noting that while iPad may have been dominating the tablet market since its launch of the iPad, it is now getting a great deal more competition from manufacturers using a variety of operating systems: Android, webOS, BlackBerry, and Windows.

  • Apple Introduces Subscription Service On The App Store

    Apple Introduces Subscription Service On The App Store

    Apple has introduced a new subscription service on its App Store for magazines, newspapers, video and music.

    This is the same subscription service that Apple recently launched with News Corp.’s “The Daily” app. Read the review here.

    Steve-Jobs-Apple Publishers set the price and length of the subscription (weekly, monthly, bi-monthly, quarterly, bi-yearly or yearly). Users choose the length of the subscription and are charged based on how long they subscribe.  Users can manage all of the subscriptions from their personal account page. Apple keeps 30 percent of the revenue from subscriptions, the same as it does for other in-app purchases.

    “Our philosophy is simple — when Apple brings a new subscriber to the app, Apple earns a 30 percent share; when the publisher brings an existing or new subscriber to the app, the publisher keeps 100 percent and Apple earns nothing,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO.

    “All we require is that, if a publisher is making a subscription offer outside of the app, the same (or better) offer be made inside the app.”

    People who buy a subscription through the App Store will have the option of providing personal information based on the publisher’s privacy policy instead of Apple’s.