“Five years ago, when Steve Jobs was in negotiations to sell songs on iTunes, he gave music execs a choice: Either work with me or get left in the dust,” Ben Fritz reports for Variety. “They worked with him.”
“But even though the deals may have helped save their business from piracy, many in the music industry now call it a devil’s bargain. Apple now commands more than 80% of the growing digital music market and has a huge influence on how much such music will cost,” Fritz reports.
“It’s that type of clout that makes many in the film industry nervous as Jobs and Apple negotiate to extend iTunes to feature-length films, a natural step after the store added TV shows last fall,” Fritz reports.
“Since 2001, when Apple introduced the iPod digital music player and iTunes software, followed by the iTunes Music Store, the company has undergone a radical transformation. In just five years, it has sold 1 billion songs, and since last October, 15 million TV shows and music- videos,” Fritz reports.
“As for adding movies to iTunes, Jobs personally heads up most negotiations, although VP Eddie Cue has taken up some of the slack as competing studios are wary of doing business with a member of Disney’s board,” Fritz reports.
“Studios have resisted Jobs’ initial insistence that feature films be priced at the easy-to-remember $9.99. After all, library titles are typically sold to Wal-Mart and Best Buy significantly cheaper than new releases. Studios now are trying to convince Apple to sell similar content at multiple price points, something the company has never done,” Fritz reports.
“Also complicating the deals: The studios are working out terms with a host of other distributors, including Amazon, Movielink and BitTorrent, in part to make sure that one company does not dominate. It seems that none of the studios wants to be first in making a deal with Apple. Disney would be the logical leader, but even they are cautious, fearing it will look like in-house synergy rather than a business decision,” Fritz reports.”
Full article here.
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Related article:
Apple releases iTunes 6 with 2,000 music videos, Pixar short films & hit TV shows for $1.99 – October 12, 2005
I agree with the quality argument. I’m all for Apple’s model and support the iTMS as much as possible (with music downloads) but poor quality has kept me from buying TV shows.
I’ve spent thousands on an HDTV and HD satellite subscription… I’ll be damned if I’m going to be watching VHS-quality video on my sweet HD rig, and I seriously doubt I’m alone.
Apple should at least give users the choice between cheap and “iPodded” (read: low-res) and higher-cost but high-res video.
Cheers,
adam
MW “went”: “Apple’s chance to sell me more video went out the window the first time I watched an iTunes movie on my TV.”
Apple will probably debut movies on iTunes for iPod consumption first which will therefore be low res.
However as bandwidth and technology improve there will be an opportunity to sell movies at HD quality. When that will happen I’m not too sure.
Renting – The big divide…
Music purchasing is one thing, movies are another.
Steve understands, and everyone for that matte should understand, music is listened too today, tomorrow and in 20 years from now. Purchasing makes sense, and it’s afordable.
Movies are different than music. The majority of people watch a movie once, as the bulk of movies are average to sub-average and do not deserve more viewing time than that. Secondly, our society does not have time to view movies over and over again.
Renting is huge, and a rental market (IMHO) should be the number one focus for Apple, and I am not so sure that is the case… A movie should be able to be rented for a reasonable price ($2.99) and then self-delete after five days or so. Of course, pirating, DRM stripping is the big fear from Hollywood, which is just ignorant when you think about that consern at any quazi-deep level…
Lastly, resolution should be a fairly bid deal. Will anyone go for video less than DVD quality? Doubtful, so will this new movie service provide two resolution indepenant versions? One for a handheld and one for TV playback? Or will the handheld get that high resolution a screen to suffice for both mediums?…
Personally, I would like to see HD downloads, but alas, that will come at a later date, once stnd. def is milked to it’s last…
Seems like Blockbuster still has it’s rule with my renting until Apple can deliver piggie-back resolutions (or choice of resolutions with tiered pricing for them), and deliver rentals…