Amazon-backed AmieStreet to present at W2NY
Amazon is set to launch a DRM-free iTunes-killer later this month according to the New York Post. In August Amazon lead an investment round in AmieStreet. The New York-based alternative music download store has been confirmed to present at the September 18 Web2NewYork networking party.
AmieStreet lets members of the community determine the price of songs. Downloads start out free and rise in price the more they are purchased. Amazon’s senior VP Business Development Jeff Blackburn calls it an ‘interesting and novel approach to selling digital music’.
So what is the connection between AmieStreet and Amazon’s upcoming download store? ‘There is no link between our mp3 stores,’ according to AmieStreet-founder Elias Roman. ‘Our play is not necessarily their customer base.’
For the investment Roman ‘flew out to Seattle and met with Jeff Bezos and a couple of angel investors’, but that’s all the details he’s willing to share.
Amazon’s download store comes as iTunes is dealing with some high profile defections. Last week NBC Universal announced it would not renew its contract with iTunes. Traditional media companies are unhappy with the lack of control over rights management and Apple fixing prices on their content.
‘This move by NBC is nothing but trouble,’ AmieStreet’s CTO Lucas Hrabovsky says per email. ‘It’s just a terrible move for them.’
Elias Roman has a different view. ‘NBC is sending the right message that they’re now ready to embrace new models. I hope AmieStreet is one of them.’
Update: As Lucas pointed out below, NBC has moved on to Amazon Unbox. I missed that.
