Amazon has stepped up its competition against iTunes with a version of its MP3 store for Apple’s iPhones and iPod Touch devices.
Long a distant second to Apple in digital music sales, Amazon has been moving aggressively over the last couple of years to attract music fans. It regularly discounts digital versions of hit albums and songs, something that has occasionally wrought some mischief on the Billboard charts. And its Cloud Player and Cloud Drive systems, introduced almost two years ago, let its customers back up their songs and stream them to virtually any device. (Apple, Google and others have their own versions of these so-called “lockers.â€)
But until now, customers who have iPhones and other portable devices that use Apple’s iOS operating system, could not buy Amazon’s MP3’s from their device. The new, “optimized†version of Amazon’s store â€" not really an app, but an HTML5page, easily viewable on a portable device â€" lets users do that, putting Amazon and its frequent discounts on downloads in direct competition with iTunes.
“Since the launch of the Amazon Cloud Player app for iPhone and iPod touch, a top request from customers has been the ability to buy music from Amazon right from their devices,†Steve Boom, the vice president of Amazon Music, said in a statement. “For the first time ever, iOS users have a way do that.â€
HTML5 has become a popular way for developers and media companies to circumvent iTunes, which â€" in addition to occasionally rejecting apps, as has happened to the embattled music service Grooveshark â€" takes a 30 percent cut of all in-app revenue for Apple.
Pandora to Pay Sony More: Sony’s music publishing arm has struck a one-year deal with Pandora Media that! will raise by 25 percent the royalty that the popular Internet radio service must pay Sony to use its music.
Sony/ATV, a joint venture between Sony and the estate of Michael Jackson, became the world’s largest publisher last year when Sony led the $2.2 billion purchase of EMI Music Publishing, and gave Sony/ATV operational control. Performing rights societies like Ascap and BMI usually negotiate rates on behalf of publishers, but at the beginning of this year Sony withdrew its digital rights from these groups, forcing licensees like Pandora to deal with Sony directly. (The rights societies still represent Sony when it comes to radio, television and other kinds of performances.)
The deal could lead to higher rates for other publishers. It could also lead to slightly thinner margins for Pandora, which pays more than half its revenue in royalties, although the vast ajority of those royalty payments go to record companies and performing artists. The news of Sony/ATV’s deal was first reported by The New York Post.
Rhapsody Discount: Rhapsody, the subscription streaming service, was introduced more than a decade ago and has about a million users, but lately all the attention has been on Spotify and other newcomers.
To stay competitive, Rhapsody’s chief executive recently announced expansion plans in Europe, and on Thursday the company said it would offer the streaming service through its integration with MetroPCS phones. Rhapsody is now available for $5 for MetroPCS customers that pay $40 to $60 a month for phone service.
A price point of about $10 a month had become standard for most of these on-demand streaming services, but competition has brought out some discount tags. Recently, for example, Sony put its subscription service, Music Unlimited, on sale for as little as $12 a year.
Ben Sisario writes about the music industry. Follow @sisario on Twitter.
