Amazon Threatens Publishers
10:20 AM -- Amazon.com Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN) is threatening to cut book publishers off if they don't adhere to a detailed list of demands on e-books, The New York Times reports.
Though the retail giant has conceded that publishers should be able to set their own prices, it wants publishers to sign three-year contracts and guarantee their e-books won't sell for less anywhere else. But, according to NYT, publishers are hesitating to lock into these contracts because of how rapidly the industry is changing, especially with the upcoming release of Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL)'s iPad.
This demand comes just two months after Amazon shut down sales of Macmillan books on the site, only to later relent.
In other news:
Meanwhile Amazon has also finally introduced a Kindle application for the Mac, with little fanfare. Rumors of the app have been flying around since last October.
YouTube Inc. has announced that 24 hours of video is now uploaded to the site every minute. This is a big increase from just 10 months ago when YouTube announced that 20 hours of video were uploaded every minute. Of course it remains to be seen whether any of this is monetizable.
— Erin Barker, Digital Content Reporter, Cable Digital News
Though the retail giant has conceded that publishers should be able to set their own prices, it wants publishers to sign three-year contracts and guarantee their e-books won't sell for less anywhere else. But, according to NYT, publishers are hesitating to lock into these contracts because of how rapidly the industry is changing, especially with the upcoming release of Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL)'s iPad.
This demand comes just two months after Amazon shut down sales of Macmillan books on the site, only to later relent.
In other news:
— Erin Barker, Digital Content Reporter, Cable Digital News
