Hollywood studios fear iTunes
Amazon’s move into movie downloading demonstrates that Apple, which dominates digital music, will have a fight on its hands if it is to achieve the same with film.
Apple’s problem is that it has frightened most of the Hollywood studios by achieving a three-quarters share of music downloading, giving it power over the future of the music industry.
The iPod manufacturer insists that all songs on an album are on sale individually — a major boost for sales of single tracks, now at a record high, but depressing album sales, where the profit for the labels lies.
As a result, major studios have signed a string of deals to kick-start movie downloading in an attempt to ensure that market shares are spread around. In the UK it is already possible to download films from Lovefilm, while BSkyB, 38 per cent owned by News Corporation, parent company of The Times, allows existing subscribers to download for free.
Apple, meanwhile, has plenty of advantages. Its portable devices remain incredibly popular and all larger iPods come with video capability. Given that the iTunes website and the iPod are linked, Apple is likely to gain significant share of the emerging download video market.
0 votes
