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Tag: Amazon

  • Amazon Q2 Sales Up 22 Percent, Made $15.7 Billion

    Amazon usually posts generally favorable earnings results. Its latest quarterly earnings report continues that trend.

    Amazon announced today that it made $15.7 billion in net sales in its second quarter. The retailer says that today’s results represent a 22 percent increase in net sales over the $12.83 billion it made in the second quarter of 2012. It said that operating cash flow increased 41 percent to $4.53 billion in the twelve months leading up to June 30.

    The retailer also posted a net loss of $7 million this past quarter. Its operating income also decreased 26 percent to $79 million compared to $107 million it made in its previous second quarter. It partially blamed the losses on the “unfavorable impact from year-over-year changes in foreign exchange rates.”

    “We’re so grateful to our customers for their response to Kindle devices and our digital ecosystem. This past quarter, our top 10 selling items worldwide were all digital products – Kindles, Kindle Fire HDs, accessories and digital content,” said Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com. “The Kindle service keeps getting better. The Kindle Store now offers millions of titles including more than 350,000 exclusives that you won’t find anywhere else. Prime Instant Video has surpassed 40,000 titles, including many premium exclusives like Downton Abbey and Under the Dome. And we’ve added more than a thousand books, games, educational apps, movies and TV shows to Kindle FreeTime Unlimited, bringing together in one place all the types of content kids and parents love.”

    As for its third quarter 2013 performance, Amazon provided the following predictions:

  • Net sales are expected to be between $15.45 billion and $17.15 billion, or to grow between 12% and 24% compared with third quarter 2012.
  • Operating loss is expected to be between $440 million and $65 million, compared to $28 million in third quarter 2012.
  • This guidance includes approximately $340 million for stock-based compensation and amortization of intangible assets, and it assumes, among other things, that no additional business acquisitions, investments, restructurings or legal settlements are concluded and that there are no further revisions to stock-based compensation estimates.

    • We’ll also most likely see the reveal of three new Kindle Fires in Amazon’s third quarter. The new hardware will probably not affect its third quarter all that much, but its fourth quarter will see the benefit of new Kindle Fires.

  • Amazon Options Movie About Comet The Non-Red-Nosed Reindeer

    Amazon Studios, Amazon’s original content production arm, announced today that it has optioned a film project called Comet, a movie about one of Santa’s reindeer not named Rudolph.

    Yes, it’s been done before. Kind of:

    But that doesn’t mean it won’t be a very different story. Besides, Prancer came out in 1989.

    Comet is described as “the underdog story of a small but determined reindeer who will face seemingly insurmountable odds to save his family’s home and join Santa’s elite sleigh team.”

    Different enough.

    Under “creative notes” on the project page, it says, “Capitalizes on a movie-going trend of ‘origin stories’ by creating one for a universally known Christmas character in a family-friendly yet sophisticated way. Script utilizes common traits from successful ‘hero’s journey’-type mythologies as well as the beats/formatting that Hollywood studios look for. ‘Comet’ has the necessary components and potential to be the next great animated franchise.”

    Earlier this week, Amazon Studios put out a couple elevator pitches for other movie projects it has in the works.

  • Amazon Shares Elevator Pitches For Original Movie Projects ‘Orange Curtain’ And ‘Her F’ing Sisters’

    Amazon Studios, Amazon’s original video content creation arm, has released a couple of “elevator pitch” videos for projects it has on its movie development slate.

    The first one is for a movie called Orange Curtain, which takes place in ’92 during the Rodney King beating trial, and is about a “deal gone wrong” that leads to some guys on the run from the police and from gangsters. Here’s the pitch:

    Amazon also has some storyboards in place for the film. Here are a few of them:

    Orange Curtain

    Orange Curtain

    Orange Curtain

    Orange Curtain

    You can see the rest here.

    The second project is a romantic comedy called ‘Her F’ing Sisters,’ which tells the story of a guy named Ryan and the “things (and people) standing between him and the girl of his dreams.”

    Here’s the pitch for that one:

    And a few of the storyboards:

    Her F'ing Sisters

    Her F'ing Sisters

    Her F'ing Sisters

    F'ing Sisters

    These are just two of many of the films on Amazon Studios’ development slate, and I expect we’ll be seeing more of these elevator pitch videos in the near term. Other projects have titles like: The Alchemist Agenda, I Think My Facebook Friend is Dead, ZvG: Zombies Vs Gladiators, For Sale By Superhero, Touching Blue, Burma Rising, Dreamcatchers, Ashes to Ashes, 12 Princesses, Hiber, Children of Others, Original Soldiers, It Came in the Mail, Soldier Boys, The 70-Year Itch, Origin Of A Species, Gideon’s Law, WizardsQuest: The Princess Queen, Seed, Animal Heads, The Detourist, Blackburn Burrow, Romeo, Juliet & Rosaline, and Leon.

    You can learn more about each of these projects here.

  • ICANN Says Amazon Can’t Own .Amazon Domain Name

    ICANN finally wrapped up the application process for new generic top level domain names last year. The results of which are still far from over, however, as the nonprofit now has to sort through all the applications and decide who to award the new gTLDs to. Amazon and Google both applied for a lot of domains, but Amazon’s request for its namesake has already been rejected.

    The Wall Street Journal reports that ICANN’s Governmental Advisory Committee has rejected Amazon’s request for the .amazon gTLD. The rejection stems from the Committee saying its unfair for Amazon to control the gTLD. Some assume that this means South American countries objected to Amazon owning the gTLD for the river that runs through most of the continent.

    For many in the world, however, Amazon no longer refers to a river, but rather the multinational online retailer. With the .amazon gTLD, the retailer could offer “a unique and dedicated platform for Amazon.” Some potential examples could be music.amazon or movies.amazon. With those examples, you can see why Amazon would love to control the gTLD.

    Of course, trying to own the gTLD for a geographic location probably wasn’t going to work out in Amazon’s favor. South American countries would obviously want to use the .amazon gTLD for their own purposes, whether it be for tourism or conservation Web sites. Amazon might still be able to use the .amazon gTLD, but it won’t be able to exclusively own it.

    So, where does this leave other companies that sought to own their namesake in gTLD form? Well, Google isn’t exactly a geographic location, and nobody else can really claim to own the Google name. As far as I’m concerned, Google will probably be granted the .google domain name.

    It’s going to be interesting to see if Apple meets a similar fate to Amazon. It only applied for one gTLD – .apple. Like Amazon, the word apple isn’t exclusive to the company. I find it hard to believe that ICANN would hand Apple exclusive control of the .apple gTLD, but it’s possible.

    Speaking of which, Amazon isn’t entirely out of the game just yet in regards to the .amazon gTLD. ICANN can still vote to approve Amazon’s request for the gTLD, but the Wall Street Journal notes that its rare for the nonprofit to go against the rulings of its Governmental Advisory Committee.

  • Most-Pirated Show Game of Thrones Is Also Amazon’s Best-Selling Show of the Year

    In another blow to the “piracy kills sales” talking point, it appears that people are buying a lot of Game of Thrones DVDs.

    Why is this significant? Well, it’s because the hit HBO series has gained a reputation as of late as the king of all pirated content on the web. And now the show has just landed at the top of another list – Amazon’s best-seller list.

    According to Amazon, Game of Thrones: The Complete Second Season is the best-selling TV show of the year (so far). It beat out True Blood season 5, Dexter season 7, Breaking Bad season 5 and The Bible miniseries.

    Recently, torrenting figures crowned Game of Thrones as the most-pirated show of the year (so far, of course). With an estimated 5.2 million downloads per episode during season 3, GoT tallied over 2 million more downloads per episode than the next most-pirated show, The Big Bang Theory. This isn’t the first time that GoT has been given that title – it was also the most-downloaded how of 2012. Since then, GoT piracy has shot up 25%.

    But even with that uptick in downloading, there are still enough fans buying the show via Amazon to place it atop the bestseller list for TV shows.

    This should come as no surprise if you’ve been following the whole GoT piracy situation and HBO’s response to it.

    HBO programming head Michael Lombardo recently said that all the GoT downloading was sort of a compliment. Not only that, but he said that it didn’t negatively impact DVD sales.

    “I probably shouldn’t be saying this, but it is a compliment of sorts. The demand is there. And it certainly didn’t negatively impact the DVD sales. [Piracy is] something that comes along with having a wildly successful show on a subscription network,” he said.

    Don’t let Lombardo speak for HBO as whole, however. The network still has plenty of anti-torrenting moves up their sleeves.

    And it’s not like HBO is making it easy for people to view their content unless they want to pony up for a cable subscription. HBO is firmly planted in its current model, which ties subscriptions to cable subscriptions. As long as that’s the case, and there’s no standalone HBO GO service offered in top piracy areas like the U.S., U.K., and Australia, people are going to continue to download it – even though it’s clear that people would pay for such a service.

    And apparently, they will still buy the DVDs too. If a show is great, people are going to want to watch it – by any and all means available.

  • Amazon Is Sold Out Of PS4, Xbox One Launch Units

    Just yesterday, GameStop announced that it had completely sold out of its initial allotment of PS4 units. Now another retailer has announced the same.

    Amazon announced today via its Video Games Facebook page that it has completely sold out of its initial allotment of PS4 and Xbox One launch units. As the retailer notes, it only took them a month to sell through the launch unit preorders:

    After a crazy and exciting month, we’ve sold through our initial allocations of PS4 and Xbox One. Thank you to all who have ordered and shared your opinions. We have the Standard Editions for both consoles still available, but we can’t guarantee these at release. Please check back here as we’ll update you first if we receive further release day allocations.

    What Amazon didn’t say is that it has sold out of its more expensive launch day bundles as well. The sell through rate of these bundle only further cements that the hype for next-gen consoles is very high, and will remain so throughout the end of the year.

    Amazon may be sold out of both the PS4 and the Xbox One, but GameStop still has the Xbox One Day One Edition available for preorder. There’s no guarantee that it will be available for much longer, however, so you better preorder now if you have your heart set on an Xbox One this holiday season.

  • Amazon Inks Deal with Miramax, Adds New Titles to Prime Instant Video

    Amazon Inks Deal with Miramax, Adds New Titles to Prime Instant Video

    Amazon has reportedly inked a deal with Miramax pictures that will bring hundreds of new movies to the Amazon Prime Instant Video Catalog.

    Some of the classic titles include:

    Pulp Fiction, Good Will Hunting, Life Is Beautiful, The English Patient, Kill Bill, Amélie, Reservoir Dogs and Trainspotting.

    The deal is said to be similar to the deal that Miramax signed with Netflix back in May of 2011. That deal included several hundred titles and was the first time that Miramax had ever made their content available on a subscription streaming service.

    The most recent addition that Amazon made to their Prime Instant Video service came a couple of weeks ago when they snagged a bunch of PBS shows.

    We’ll bring you more details when Amazon puts out an official announcement, or when they get back to us (whichever comes first).

  • ‘App Store’ Drama Is Finally Over as Apple, Amazon Stop Fighting Over It

    In mommy and daddy have stopped fighting news, Apple and Amazon have both requested that a lawsuit over the use of the term “app store” be dismissed.

    More specifically, Apple has agreed not to sue Amazon over their use of the term “appstore,” which means that Amazon no longer has a reason to pursue the ability to use it in court. Apps are sold in app stores, or appstores, or whatever – it’s a generic term, and it seems like everyone involved can now agree on that.

    The whole thing began when Amazon launched the Amazon Appstore for Android back in 2011. Apple quickly filed a claim, accusing Amazon of both trademark violations and false advertising. Basically, Apple claimed to own the term “app store.”

    Or, in the exact words from Apple’s suit:

    “[Amazon’s Appstore] misrepresents the nature, characteristics and qualities of Amazon’s mobile download service and/or deceives or has a tendency to deceive a substantial segment of consumers into believing that Amazon’s service has the nature, characteristics, and/or qualities of Apple’s APP STORE service.”

    As you would expect, Amazon had a counterclaim ready. They alleged that the term “appstore” is generic, simply signifying a place to purchase and download apps.

    Back in January, judge Phyllis Hamilton sided with Amazon on the false advertisement charges.

    “Apple has failed to establish that Amazon made any false statement (express or implied) of fact that actually deceived or had the tendency to deceive a substantial segment of its audience,” said Hamilton in her ruling.

    But other claims remained (trademark violation). Now, nearly six months after that ruling, the Hamilton has ordered the case dismissed.

    “We no longer see a need to pursue our case. With more than 900,000 apps and 50 billion downloads, customers know where they can purchase their favorite apps,” said an Apple spokeswoman in a statement.

    So, Apple will have their App Store and Amazon will have their Appstore. Case closed.

    [via Reuters]

  • Amazon To Launch Three New Kindle Fires This Year [Rumor]

    It’s another year and that means another Kindle Fire. It doesn’t look like Amazon will be introducing any new models this year, but it will be substantially upgrading all three of its current models though.

    BGR reports that it has learned Amazon will be upgrading the displays on the Kindle Fire, Kindle Fire HD and Kindle Fire HD 8.9″. With this latest rumored upgrade, Amazon will finally have HD displays in all of its Kindle Fire models.

    First up is the current $159 Kindle Fire. Amazon released an improved version last year, but it still had a measly 1024×600 display resolution. The company will be fixing that this year by using a 7-inch 1,280×800 display – the same display resolution seen in last year’s Nexus 7. The tablet is also expected to remain the low cost option, but it remains to be seen if the price will remain at $159.

    Moving onto last year’s new models, the Kindle Fire HD will be received a pretty substantial upgrade. The current model only sports a display resolution of 1280×800, but the new one will reportedly have a 1920×1200 display resolution. It’s a solid resolution for a 7-inch tablet, and one that the new Nexus 7 will probably also sport.

    The Kindle Fire HD 8.9″ is geting the biggest upgrade as it’s moving from a 1920×1200 display resolution to a 2560×1600 resolution. At only 8.9-inches, Amazon’s Kindle Fire 8.9″ will be the smallest tablet to features such a large resolution. In fact, most current 10-inch tablets can’t match that display, with Google’s Nexus 10 being its only current contemporary.

    As for general design, the rumors state that the new Kindle Fires will feature a more “chiseled” design with sharp, instead of round, corners. The power and volume buttons have also been moved from the side to the top sloping back to avoid accidental button presses.

    So, when can we expect the new Kindle Fires to start hitting stores? It’s currently rumored that Amazon is pushing for a September launch. The original Kindle Fire was announced and launched in September of last year so it makes sense to look forward to a similar scenario this year.

    It should be noted that all of this is merely speculation for now, but it does seem highly plausible. We also might just hear something about the oft-rumored Kindle Phone this year, but that’s far less likely than the above rumors.

  • Amazon Launches Jet City Comics, Will Reprint George R. R. Martin’s Comics

    You’re never spoiled for choice when it comes to comic publishers, but it is pretty hard to compete on the level of DC and Marvel. Amazon thinks it has what it takes, however, with its new imprint.

    Amazon Publishing announced today the launch of Jet City Comics. It’s a new imprint dedicated to comics and graphic novels from some of the world’s best authors. Case in point – Amazon has managed to get George R. R. Martin on board with reprints of his old comics as well as a new adaptation of one his most celebrated short stories.

    “My fans have been clamoring for the return of Dunk & Egg ever since the graphic novels of ‘The Hedge Knight’ and ‘The Sworn Sword’ went out of print several years ago,” said author George R. R. Martin, “so I am delighted to announce that Jet City Comics is bringing them back—newly formatted for digital readers, and in paper for those who still prefer the traditional formats. And Jet City will be bringing you something new as well: the graphic novel ‘Meathouse Man,’ adapted from one of my strangest, darkest, and most twisted short stories by the amazingly talented Raya Golden. I’m pleased and excited to be a part of Jet City’s takeoff. May they fly high.”

    Martin isn’t the only big name Amazon has managed to snag for its first foray into comic publishing. Readers can also look forward to new comics based on novels by Hugh Howey and Neal Stephenson:

    An adaptation of Hugh Howey’s bestselling dystopian novel Wool by comics veterans Jimmy Palmiotti, Justin Gray, and illustrator Jimmy Broxton, where the remnants of humanity live in a massive silo hundreds of stories below the surface of the ruined and toxic landscape of Earth. Wool was a #1 bestseller in the Kindle store and is one of the most-reviewed science fiction novels on Amazon, with almost 6,000 customer reviews. It will be released as a Kindle Serial, as six individual comics issues starting in October 2013, followed by a collected graphic novel in 2014.

    Six original comics from The Foreworld Saga, the bestselling alternate history series that began with The Mongoliad (a serialized novel collaboratively written Neal Stephenson, Greg Bear, Mark Teppo, Nicole Galland, Erik Bear, Joseph Brassey and Cooper Moo). The first Foreworld comic, “Symposium #1” by author Christian Cameron and Illustrator Dmitry Bondarenko, details the origins of the Shield-Brethren in Ancient Greece in the days following Athens crushing defeat to Sparta in 394 BC. It goes on-sale today, with new installments releasing monthly before being collected in a series of graphic novels in 2014.

    “It’s a dream to work with superstar authors like George, Hugh and Neal on the launch of a new imprint,” said Alex Carr, Senior Editor of Jet City Comics. “Millions of fans have read and loved their novels, and with Jet City we look forward to opening up these iconic worlds to new audiences. We’re working with an incredible, hand-picked team of comics professionals, writers, artists, and translators, who have done an amazing job developing and expanding these inventive stories. I’m looking forward to the response from comics readers and fans.”

    As you can probably already tell, Jet City Comics will be focused on comic adaptations of book series. It doesn’t appear that Amazon is getting into original characters just yet, and that’s perfectly acceptable. Selling a new character is hard these days, especially in comics. Amazon would be wise to stick to recognizable worlds and characters for its first foray into the highly competitive, but still relatively niche, world of comics.

    As for availability, it looks like single issues will only be sold as digital downloads via Kindle. The press release says that print editions will be available, but it doesn’t clarify if it will print single issues alongside graphic novels. We’ve reached out to Amazon for clarification and will update if we hear back.

    UPDATE: Amazon Publishing provided us with the following statement:

    Jet City Comics will publish in print and digital formats, as single-issue comics and collected graphic novels. Print issues will be made available for comic book stores and other physical retailers to carry.

  • Miss Under the Dome? Remember, You Can Watch It Now on Amazon Prime Instant Video

    Miss Under the Dome? Remember, You Can Watch It Now on Amazon Prime Instant Video

    If you happened to miss the series premiere of the new CBS show Under the Dome, this is just a friendly reminder that it’s now available to stream on Amazon Prime Instant Video.

    And this is not a one-time thing. All episodes of Under the Dome will hit Amazon Prime Instant Video just four days after their original broadcast, thanks to a deal Amazon made with CBS back in February. It’s an exclusive deal, meaning no other streaming service offers the show. Not only that, but you can’t even stream it on CBS.com anymore – each episode only stays up on there for the first three days after airing.

    Yeah, it’s all confusing – but the point is that the most current episode of Under the Dome will always be available to stream four days after air on Amazon Prime.

    “Stephen King’s stories have entertained readers for decades and Under the Dome has been a very popular book with Amazon customers,” said Brad Beale, Director of Digital Video Content Acquisition for Amazon. “We’re excited to offer this highly anticipated CBS series exclusively to Prime customers at no additional cost during its current television season.”

    Under the Dome is based on a 2009 Stephen King novel of the same name. It deals with a small New England town that is suddenly cut off from the rest of the world by an giant, transparent dome. It’s being produced by Steve Spielberg’s Amblin Television

    Monday’s big premiere was just that – big. The show garnered an impressive 13.1 million viewers and a 3.2 rating in the target 18-49 age group.

    After the premiere, however, some fans of the book were a bit perturbed by some differences between it an the TV show. Stephen King wrote an open letter to his fans, telling them that it’s ok to enjoy to book for what it is and the TV show for what it is.

    “If you loved the book when you first read it, it’s still there for your perusal. But that doesn’t mean the TV series is bad, because it’s not. In fact, it’s very good. And, if you look closely, you’ll see that most of my characters are still there, although some have been combined and others have changed jobs,” said King.

  • Amazon’s Fan Fiction Store Is Officially Open

    Amazon’s Fan Fiction Store Is Officially Open

    Remember when Amazon announced Kindle Worlds back in May? The service would allow writers to create and sell fan fiction based on a number of licensed properties, like Vampire Diaries. It’s an incredibly innovative approach to fan fiction, and now it’s available to all.

    Amazon announced today that the Kindle Worlds Store is open for business. The store launches with over 50 commissioned works written by already accomplished authors. Now the submission portal has been opened to all so they can submit their own fan fictions to the store.

    “Today, we launch the Kindle Worlds Store and the platform that will enable any writer to benefit from writing in one of the Worlds we’ve licensed,” said Philip Patrick, Director, Business Development and Publisher of Kindle Worlds. “We look forward to hearing feedback from readers and writers, and hope to learn and improve as time goes on.”

    First things first – this isn’t fanfiction.net. You can’t just go writing about any property that you want. You must operate within the franchises that Amazon has been able to license thus far. Thankfully, the retail giant has secured licenses for a number of popular franchises that pretty much beg for fan fiction:

  • Warner Bros. Television Group’s Alloy Entertainment division for its New York Times best-selling book series Gossip Girl, by Cecily von Ziegesar; Pretty Little Liars, by Sara Shepard; and The Vampire Diaries, by L.J. Smith
  • Valiant Entertainment for Bloodshot, X-O Manowar, Archer & Armstrong, Harbinger and Shadowman
  • Best-selling authors Hugh Howey for Silo Saga, Barry Eisler for his John Rain novels, Blake Crouch for his Wayward Pines Series, and the Foreworld Saga by Neal Stephenson, Greg Bear, Mark Teppo and more

    • To publish stories in any of the above worlds, you’ll have to do the following:

  • Choose Your World: Choose a World to write in and read the content guidelines.
  • Sign Up and Submit: Sign in (or sign up) with your Amazon account and submit your work using our self-service submission platform.
  • Review and Publish: Amazon Publishing will review your submission for compliance with the stated guidelines and we’ll publish your work once approved. Each sale of the Work will result in a royalty to the author.
  • Promote and Track Your Work: Post publication, sign into Author Central to track progress on your work.

    • Amazon says that it’s currently working to secure more licenses across books, movies, TV shows and video games, but has nothing more to announce at the moment. Let’s just hope they can get the license to Jurassic Park. The potential for Ian Malcolm fan fiction is too large to ignore.

    You can get started on your officially licensed fan fiction journey here.

  • Amazon Adds PBS Shows to Prime Instant Video: NOVA, Masterpiece, and a Handful of Kids Shows

    Amazon and PBS have just announced an expanded licensing agreement that will see a bunch of past episodes of popular PBS shows hit the Prime Instant Video catalog.

    On the adult side of things, the deal brings over NOVA, Masterpiece, and some Ken Burns documentaries. For the kids, Amazon will now stream Caillou, Arthur, Daniels Tiger’s Neighborhood, Dinosaur Train and Wild Kratts.

    “This deal is exciting for Prime members and particularly for those with families – this new deal combined with the recently announced Viacom deal brings some of the most popular kids programming to Prime Instant Video, making it the perfect place for the whole family to catch up on all their favorites,” said Brad Beale, Director of Digital Video Content Acquisition for Amazon. “Not to mention, Downton Abbey is continually one of the most watched shows of all time on Prime Instant Video. Prime Instant Video will soon become the only video subscription service to exclusively offer all seasons, current and future, of Downton Abbey – something we know our customers will love.”

    Speaking of Masterpiece, Amazon reiterates that they are now the only streaming platform on which you can stream the third season of Downton Abbey. Amazon stole the show from Netflix and Hulu back in February – gaining exclusive streaming rights to past, present, and even future seasons. Seasons 1 & 2 of Downton Abbey will disappear from all other streaming services later this year, and season 4 (and 5, 6, and so on if applicable) will only appear on Amazon Prime Instant Video.

    The PBS kids shows add to Amazon Prime’s growing lineup of entertainment targeted at children. Earlier this month, Amazon inked a deal with Viacom that gave them streaming access to Nickelodeon and Nick Jr. shows like Dora the Explorer, Blue’s Clues, and SpongeBob Squarepants.

    Interestingly enough, we recently learned that Netflix will be losing some PBS content soon. And this does include some NOVA and Ken Burns stuff. More on that here.

    Recently, Amazon also announced an expanded agreement with NBCUniversal to add a handful of NBC, USA, and SyFy shows to Prime Instant Video.

  • Amazon Is Not Above Suggesting Users Watch A Netflix Original

    Amazon and Netflix have become direct competitors in the online streaming video content space. Netflix is on a roll with its original shows, and Amazon is following suit (though it won’t be releasing entire seasons of shows all at once in Netflix fashion).

    But Netflix wants a wider audience for its shows beyond its own members, so it is releasing them on DVD (Lilyhammer Season 1 is also available). House of Cards Season 1 was released on DVD and Blu-ray earlier this month, and of course, it’s available on Amazon. Now Amazon is going so far as to suggest that users buy the Netflix original series by sending emails to users.

    House of Cards

    Perhaps Netflix will gain a few subscribers in time for Season 2, which is currently filming.

  • Miami Tops Amazon’s List of Top Music-Buying Cities in America

    Amazon, known for its various lists charting the most well-read cities and such, has a new list comprised using its massive sales data – “Cities That Rock.”

    The company is charting the American cities with the most music sales per capita – this includes MP3, CD, and vinyl. Only the top 100 most-populous cities in the country were in consideration for the list.

    You winner was Miami, Florida, who not only purchased for Latin music than anyone else in the country, but also more dance, metal, and kid’s music too. Without further ado, here’s the top 20 list:

    1. Miami, Fla.
    2. Pittsburgh, Penn.
    3. Orlando, Fla.
    4. Salt Lake City, Utah
    5. St. Louis, Mo.
    6. Cincinnati, Ohio
    7. Seattle, Wash.
    8. Ann Arbor, Mich.
    9. Richmond, Va.
    10. Atlanta, Ga.
    11. Cambridge, Mass.
    12. Columbia, S.C.
    13. Knoxville, Tenn.
    14. Dayton, Ohio
    15. Rochester, N.Y.
    16. Berkley, Calif.
    17. Vancouver, Wash.
    18. Alexandria, Va.
    19. Portland, Ore.
    20. Bellvue, Wash.

    Other tidbits from Amazon? Well, Pittsburgh is actually rock city and Orlando is the pop music capital of the country. That’s not surprising, considering it’s the birthplace of both The Backstreet Boys and ‘N Sync. A Tennessee took the crown in country music purchases – but it wasn’t Nashville, it was Knoxville.

    Seattle is the most indie-loving town in the country – go figure.

    “We’re excited to hear that Miami is #1 on the first-ever Cities that Rock list from Amazon. The beauty of Miami is our residents and visitors include a wonderful combination of people with very different backgrounds and experiences. If you can’t find music you like in Miami, you can’t find it,” said Mayor Tomas P. Regalado.

    Miami actually came in third in Amazon’s recent most well-read cities list.

  • Dexter, Star Trek Coming to Amazon’s LoveFilm Streaming

    LoveFilm, a streaming service owned by Amazon, today announced that members from the U.K. and Germany can now stream a variety of CBS programming, including some Showtime original series.

    “We’re excited to partner with LoveFilm and their terrific subscription service on an agreement that will bring their U.K. and German subscribers a range of CBS content that audiences around the world are very passionate about,” said Armando Nuñez, CEO of CBS Global Distribution Group. This is another example of the growing licensing opportunities available for CBS’s world class content in a dynamic global marketplace.”

    The new Showtime shows available include Dexter, Nurse Jackie, and Californication. CBS network shows such as The Good Wife and Blue Bloods are also available, as are classic CBS properties such as the original Star Trek series and Star Trek: Voyager. The shows are available to stream starting today.

    Only the first one or two seasons are available for many of the new shows, though the entirety of the original Star Trek series is available. Only the first two seasons of Dexter are available, which isn’t quite enough to catch up to the eighth and final season, which premieres on Showtime this coming Sunday.

  • James Gandolfini’s Death Prompted This Questionable Facebook Post from Amazon

    James Gandolfini’s Death Prompted This Questionable Facebook Post from Amazon

    Good intentions gone horribly wrong? A callous attempt to generate sales from the death of an icon? Or a simple mistake by some social media guy? Whatever the case, some people aren’t very happy with Amazon right now.

    As you probably heard, well-respected actor James Gandolfini, best known for his masterful portrayal of conflicted mob boss Tony Soprano in HBO’s The Sopranos, died on Wednesday of an apparent heart attack at the age of 51. Tributes to the late actor poured out on social media, but Amazon.com’s “tribute” rubbed some Facebook users the wrong way.

    Shortly after news of his passing hit the internet, Amazon’s official Facebook page posted an update that read:

    Saddened to hear about the passing of James Gandolfini today. We’ll miss you, James, and the memorable characters you brought to life.

    That’s a nice sentiment – except for the fact that the post also included a link to The Sopranos: The Complete First Season on Amazon.com.

    The post has since been removed, but as this is the internet, nothing is ever really deleted. Gizmodo has the screenshot:

    Many Facebook users are upset, claiming that Amazon was using the death of Gandolfini to profit.

    “Way to retract that shameless attempt to profit from the tragedy of James Gandolfinis death. Wonder who’s losing their job over this one,” says one user on Amazon’s official Facebook page.

    “Stay classy Amazon. I’m sure James Gandolfini’s family is happy that his untimely death could bump up your Sopranos DVD sales,” says another.

    You can check out more similar comments here.

    Tasteless? Maybe. But it’s likely just a mistake made by an over-zealous social media manager. The post has been removed, so let’s not crucify Amazon. But it does show that people are going to call you out if your company uses (and abuses) social media like this. Companies, beware.

  • Amazon Says No to Binge Watching with Its Original Series

    As far as subscription-based streaming video providers go, Netflix got out ahead of the rest of the pack when it comes to high-quality original content. And since they’re the trendsetters, it’s their release style and structure that most people have come to expect.

    Just dump all of the episodes at once – that’s the Netflix way. They did it with Lilyhammer, House of Cards, Hemlock Grove, and Arrested Development. You might have assumed that all streaming services would follow suit, releasing all of the episodes of their own original series at the same time. And you wouldn’t have been wrong to assume that.

    But apparently, your assumption is wrong. According to the producers of a new Amazon original series, that’s not the way they’re going to play it.

    Back in April, Amazon debuted 14 pilots, put them up for free, and took user feedback. From that feedback, Amazon made some cuts and decided to greenlight five new series: Alpha House, Betas, Annebots, Creative Galaxy, and Tumbleaf.

    Jonathan Alter, former Newsweek columnist and author, is an executive producer on one of those series – Alpha House. That show stars John Goodman and was written by Doonesbury‘s Garry Trudeau. It’s about four U.S. Senators who live together in a rented house in Washington D.C. Alter recently told The Wrap that Amazon was not going to release all of the new Alpha House episodes at the same time.

    “It hasn’t been entirely determined how they’ll put it out. But it will be a different model than the one used by Netflix,” he said.

    That’s interesting and it shows that Amazon isn’t afraid to buck the trend set by Netflix – even if that trend is proving popular with viewers. Binge watching has its benefits – mainly the absolute lack of any sort of forced delayed gratification. But it also can have its drawbacks, as some argue that the immediate availability dampens the buzz for any particular show by failing to keep it in the pop culture eye for more than a few weeks.

    Alpha House is set to debut in the Fall.

  • Amazon Launches New Facebook-Integrated Crowdsourced Gifting Product

    Amazon is looking to move in on Facebook’s gifting turf with a new product that lets friends crowdsource each other’s gifts using the power of the social network’s graph.

    Amazon has just announced Amazon Birthday Gift, a “new way for customers to surprise friends on their birthdays by joining together to send Amazon.com Gift Cards with birthday messages on Facebook.”

    It’s pretty simple, really. Let’s say that you want to send an Amazon gift card to your buddy Phil for his birthday in a week. Simply head on over to the Amazon Birthday Gift page, create a new gift card, and select your amount. You can start the card with $1, $5, $10 or $25. Then, designate your Facebook friend recipient and write a birthday message. Then, invite friends (via Facebook) to contribute on the gift card. With any luck, you and your friends run up the pot enough to have a substantial amount waiting for Phil when his birthday actually arrives.

    Phil won’t see the virtual card until his birthday.

    “Birthdays have always been social occasions, and sites like Facebook now make it possible for anyone around the world to send birthday wishes to friends – with Amazon Birthday Gift, those many individual messages can become a big gift,” said Steve Shure, Amazon vice president, traffic. “Whether it’s your best friend or your old high school teammate, Amazon Birthday Gift lets you join a social gift that will grow as more friends participate, which makes giving and receiving birthday messages on Facebook even more fun.”

    It’s an interesting move from Amazon, who dipped their toes in the birthday gift arena last year with their Friends and Family Gifting service. But the new Amazon Birthday Gift is a smart, easy-to-use gifting service that utilizes Facebook to make it run. Amazon is taking a swipe at Facebook’s own Gifts platform on its own turf – and Amazon has an obvious advantage: Amazon gift cards offer a vast array of product choices, as opposed to the limited choice offered by Facebook Gifts.

    Still, Facebook can spend time promoting its own gifting platform inside the service – something that Amazon can’t really do. And we’ll have to wait and see if crowdsourced birthday gifting catches on.

  • 1984 Book Sales Spike Due To NSA Scandal

    1984 Book Sales Spike Due To NSA Scandal

    Nearly everyone knows what the phrase “Big Brother” means in a political discussion – a government that keeps a close eye on its people’s comings and goings, a surveillance state. Surprisingly few people these days know that the phrase comes from George Orwell’s dystopian science fiction novel, 1984.

    That, it seems, is rapidly changing. In the wake of recent revelations regarding the NSA’s surveillance of American citizens the book has shot up Amazon’s bestseller rankings. One edition – the centennial edition – has seen sales increase by a staggering 5,800%, moving from 7,397th to 125th. Another edition has moved from 810th in the rankings to 209th. Other booksellers have reported similar spikes in sales, including Barnes & Noble and The Strand in New York City. The book is currently 43rd in the iBooks store’s top books list.

    The book, in case you haven’t read it, tells the story of a totalitarian government run by the mysterious dictator Big Brother. The government engages in extensive surveillance and mind control of the populace (hence the phrase “Big Brother is watching you,” which appears on propaganda materials in the book).

    1984 isn’t the only book to enjoy a boost in sales thanks to the NSA scandal. Other dystopian novels have seen similar, if not as striking, surges, including Orwell’s other classic, Animal Farm, Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, and Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World.

    So, on the down side, it turns out that the government is paying way more attention to your business than (almost) anybody thought. On the bright side, a whole new generation of readers are being introduced to some literary classics. So there’s that.

  • AmazonFresh, Amazon’s Grocery Delivery Service, Launches in L.A.

    Last week, we told you that Amazon was about to get more serious about groceries by expanding their AmazonFresh grocery delivery service outside of Seattle – the only place where it has been offered for the past few years.

    Today, they’ve done just that. AmazonFresh is now available in Los Angeles in select zip codes. AmazonFresh offers free grocery delivery (produce, meat, alcohol, etc.) to members. It first launched in Seattle way back in 2007.

    Amazon is offering a free 90-day trial of AmazonFresh to Amazon Prime members. After that, your Prime membership will be “upgraded” to a Prime Fresh membership. That entails a $299 yearly fee. Amazon says that through AmazonFresh, members have access to more the 500,000 items and free same-day delivery on orders of $35 or more.

    Reports indicate that this expansion into L.A. is just the beginning. After developing AmazonFresh in Seattle for the past 6 years, Amazon is ready to make a bigger push into more markets – San Francisco later this year and possibly 20 or so other urban areas in 2014.