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Apple may relaunch its Netflix for magazines service in the spring
Apple may launch a new version of Texture, a magazine subscription app it bought in March, in the spring. However, publishing executives are reportedly wary of including their products in the service and potentially losing revenue to Apple's all-in-one model.
Cadillac pauses its $1,800-per-month car subscription service
Just one year after launching it, Cadillac is temporarily ending its expensive car subscription service, the Wall Street Journal reported. Book by Cadillac, which charged drivers $1,800 to be behind the wheel of one of the company's cars, will be paused started December 1st. Subscribers will have 30 days to turn in the vehicles they were renting through the service, meaning they'll have to find another ride pretty quickly.
Kickstarter hands Drip crowdfunding platform over to XOXO founders
Drip, Kickstarter's subscriber-based crowdfunding platform designed to compete with Patreon, is shutting down in its current form after launching just one year earlier. It will continue operating for a year before it is transformed into an entirely new project headed up by the team behind XOXO, a festival for independent artists and creators.
Cinemark launches a monthly movie program to rival MoviePass
MoviePass, the $10-per-month movie theater subscription service, was so unexpectedly popular when it launched last August that the company struggled to meet demand. Its success hasn't gone unnoticed, especially by the competition. Theater chain Cinemark is creating its own service, Movie Club, but with far less generous perks. For a $9 monthly subscription, it grants a single ticket (instead of one every day) but also gives 20 percent off concessions and cheaper bulk ticket rates.
Plex DVR can now automatically remove commercials
Plex, the service that collects media and streaming channels into one application, has been fine-tuning its offerings with new features that have recently improved viewing quality. But its next addition came with little fanfare: Enabling its DVR, which it launched back in June, to automatically remove commercials.
All-you-can-play indie gaming is coming for $10 per month
While Microsoft's Xbox Game Pass likely appeals to players who want mainstream console titles, there hasn't been a great unlimited play platform for indie games -- until now. A new service, Jump, has just emerged from the ether to satisfy fans of non-tentpole gaming. For $10 a month, users can play any of the service's 60-plus game initial catalogue, with ten more coming each month for desktop and VR platforms. Jump's beta period is running from now til July 24th with a limited game selection, but once the full service launches this summer, anyone can sign up for a 14-day free trial.
Target Ticket video-on-demand service exits closed beta, is now open for everyone
We heard whispers just a few weeks ago that Target was about to open up its video-on-demand service to the general public. Turns out, those rumors were on the money: Target Ticket exited its closed beta today, and is now live for anyone to try out. Like Amazon Video on Demand, it offers a mix of movies and TV shows, with a choice of rentals and the option to buy outright. At a cursory glance, too, it looks like all the most popular stuff is included. (All six seasons of Breaking Bad? Check.) As for pricing, there's no consistent rule here, and we can't totally explain why some shows are more expensive than others, either ($15 for the third season of Downton Abbey seems like a steal, if you ask us). It's the same thing with the movie selections: there are lots of recent titles on tap, with prices generally ranging from $13 to $20. We've included the link below, along with a link to Target's new online-only subscription service for buying the same items over and over again. Unfortunately, though, that last one is limited to baby supplies for the time being, so unless you need to stock up on diapers, there's not much to see there.
Financial Times: YouTube is close to launching paid-subscription channels
YouTube has been making its own space on multiple entertainment services for a while, but according to a report from the Financial Times, it's now on the cusp of revealing its own subscription services for some of its specialist video channels. Rumored for several months, according to the FT's unnamed sources it will include up to 50 different channels, with subscription pricing starting at "as little as $1.99 a month." Google has already followed up, saying it had nothing to announce just yet, but that it was investigating "a subscription platform that could bring even more great content to YouTube."
Rdio begins paying artists $10 for every user they attract
Streaming music services have a bad reputation when it comes to paying their artists, who only earn a few cents each play. Rdio is trying to remedy that (and grow its subscriber base) by paying songsters $10 for every user they personally attract that stays around longer than a month. Brendan Benson, Scissor Sisters and Snoop Dogg Lion have already signed up, but it's not just for big names, any musician with an Rdio account can join -- tempting us to upload our Lady Gaga covers played on the Sousaphone in the quest for some of those rockstar riches.
Kazaa reborn as iPhone, iPad music service
Several years back, Kazaa shed its roots as a file-sharing service with questionable content and is now a legitimate music subscription service. To expand its offerings, the subscription service recently introduced both an iPhone and an iPad client. Similar to Rdio and Spotify, Kazaa lets you listen to music on the fly on your iOS device. The app lets you search for artists, create playlists and sync your music for offline listening. Kazaa for iOS is available for free, while the service has a $10 monthly fee.
Vestel, Exent bring Android games to TVs, with 'all-you-can-eat' subscription service
Just last week Vestel was busy showing of its BitTorrent Certified Television, and now the company's teaming up with Exent to deliver Android games to your boob tube -- and it's doing so by playing off your love of a bottomless buffet. Described as "the world's first all-you-can-eat Android TV game subscription service," GameTanium allows users of Vestel's Smart Box set-top box to access a suite of TV-optimized games in the comfort of their living rooms, using their Android phones as controllers. What's more, the service lets them switch between their PC, cellphone, tablet or TV without ever losing their place in a game. The service will be debuted at this week's IBC, but if this announcement has left you hungry for more, there's always the Golden Corral. Full PR awaits you and your belly after the break.
Google announces One Pass payment system for online content (video)
Thinking of wading into the fast paced world of publishing in the digital age, yet balking at the thirty percent cut Apple is taking for its in-app subscription model? Fret not, would-be Hearsts and Murdochs: Google One Pass is here. The PR-speak promises "an open and flexible platform" for "publishers, journalism and access to quality content." Sure, but what is it, exactly? A user authentication, payment processing, and administration system for folks who want to sell content on the web. Google only takes ten percent off the top, and you even get access to customer consumer data -- something Apple is unwilling to do. Intrigued? Check out the video after the break. Update: Also worth noting is that One Pass works across multiple sites, and it offers payments within mobile apps as well. [Thanks, John]
iTunes shocker! Apple announces App Store subscriptions
Hot on the heels of the Daily, the oft-rumored Apple subscription service is finally spreading out to the rest of the app store. Love it or lump it, anything currently available in the company's online marketplace, including magazines, newspapers, video, and music, can now be offered on the subscription model. "All we require," said Steve Jobs in the press release, "is that, if a publisher is making a subscription offer outside of the app, the same (or better) offer be made inside the app, so that customers can easily subscribe with one-click right in the app." (This sounds familiar.) Publishers are also restricted from linking out of the app to locations that allow the user to circumvent the in-app purchase (and publishers can't offer better deals outside of the app store). The rationale here? Apple gets thirty percent off the top off in-app purchases -- enough of a cut, we're guessing, to prompt some bigger publishers to skip the platform altogether (outside purchases, of course, are exempt from this fee). PR after the break.
Apple in talks to launch iTunes subscription music service?
Rumors of an iTunes subscription service are nothing new, but it's not every day they pop up in Reuters and the New York Post and CNET all at once, so here we go again. The Reuters and NYP reports claim Apple's Eddy Cue has been meeting with record execs to pitch a new $10-$15 monthly service that would offer unlimited access to music -- the pricing would be tiered depending on the amount of music consumed and how long you'd get access to it. That goes hand in hand with the CNET piece, which says Apple's trying to keep Spotify from getting US deals in place by telling the labels they'll never make any money from the service -- not the most chivalrous of moves, but no one ever said the music business was a friendly place. Of course, we've been hearing versions of these rumors for ages now and we're sure there are always talks ongoing, so this could all be nothing, but we'd bet Apple's trying to work something out ahead of Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 launch and renewed Zune marketing push. We'll see, we'll see.
Google music service might offer subscriptions as well as digital downloads
We know that Google's been thinking about launching a music service, and now the crazy kids at Billboard are reporting details of a proposal that the search giant's been circulating among the major labels. Apparently the company is pursuing a sort of hybrid digital download store / cloud-based locker service, with the store offering individual tracks or albums, while the "locker" would scan the user's hard drive for music files and, upon finding tracks that Google is licensed to offer, allow the user access to them on the cloud (presumably you won't be actually uploading your MP3s to the service, just streaming their content once it's determined you have a copy of your own). And since you can't offer any service without a little "social networking" on the side these days, Google would like to give users the opportunity to send each other tracks, which they could listen to once -- and then either purchase or preview (um, review) in thirty second snippets, similar to Lala. There's no word yet on which -- if any -- labels are willing to take the bait, but we'll let you know as soon as we hear anything else. Promise.
Switched On: ZuneForSure
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology. The moon has only four major phases, but as the Zune -- that satellite around Microsoft's gravitational pull -- enters a familiar fifth phase, what some consider a pale reflection of the iPod has made few waves despite inspiring its share of romantics. Zune began as a new salvo against the iPod as Microsoft grew frustrated in its attempts to make inroads versus Apple's soaring digital media device with its abysmally named and convoluted PlaysForSure rights management scheme. PlaysForSure had actually achieved some level of acceptance on digital music players and even handsets, but as Steve Ballmer has explained, devices that sell in the tens of millions of units per year -- as opposed to hundreds of millions like PCs and handsets (Kin notwithstanding) -- can be a good opportunity for vertical integration of hardware and software. And so was born Zune, welcoming us to the social with its chunky profile, brown color option, "double shot" facade and the quirky and later abandoned WiFi-based song-squirting sharing feature. Its next major iteration introduced the "squircle" -- a rounded square clickable trackpad that surpassed the click wheel just as Apple was gearing up for the game-changing iPod touch: strike two.
Google setting up music store later this year, looking for search and Android synergy
Remember that chart that pointed out the differences between Google, Apple and Microsoft? Well, it's looking increasingly like Google is intent on filling any and all gaps in its portfolio. Those good old unnamed sources have been talking, originally to CNET last week and to the Wall Street Journal today, and disclosing Google's supposed intent to introduce its very own music store. This would initially encompass a web store where you can stream or download tracks, with a search tie-in that'll get your money into Google's pocket in the fastest possible way. Subsequent plans are said to include Android integration in 2011 -- something that Google rather nonchalantly demoed at its I/O conference last month. Of course, none of this is as yet confirmed, but it looks like Apple and Google will be competing across yet another front -- hold on tight.
Circuit City, Napster team up for subscription-based music service
Following Best Buy's move to team up with SanDisk and Real for an online music service, Circuit City has now conjured up a deal of its own as it works with Napster to provide yet another subscription-based solution. The simply-titled Circuit City + Napster seemingly won't deviate from what Napster's current service already offers, but the partnership does tease "access to exclusive songs and new releases on a weekly basis" when it launches on April 29th. In what appears to be little more than a marketing effort to get the $14.95 per month service into more retail space, the low-key offering will give new customers their first month gratis, five free song downloads (you know, the ones you "keep"), and the ability to purchase individual song downloads at 99-cents apiece. Furthermore, prepaid download cards can be snapped up in bundles of 15, 25, or 60 tracks, and we can only assume the playback restrictions from the current Napster service will carry over into this.[Via Yahoo]
MusicGremlin MG-1000 review roundup
We've been following start-up Music Gremlin for some time now, from its ambitious beginnings as a software company through its transition to a reference device designer and finally into a self-branding manufacturer, so we were more than a little disappointed to learn that lukewarm reviews of the recently-launched MG-1000 DAP indicate that it contains no small number of bugs and frustrating restrictions. Like the prototype Zing player that we recently spotted (but unlike the similarly-equipped SoniqCast devices), the MG-1000 offers direct-to-device downloads along with device-to-device file transfers thanks to built-in WiFi, but these features are limited to customers who also pay $15-a-month for the proprietary Music Gremlin service, on top of the $300 they already shelled out for the unit itself. Some of the problems reviewers have mentioned -- such as an intermittent WiFi connection, cumbersome search process, and lack of automatic power down or FM presets -- can be addressed by the company in future firmware releases, but other issues -- like the small 8GB hard drive, relatively weak battery life, and inability to share any tracks besides subscription downloads with anyone but fellow subscribers -- are either hardware-based or can't be resolved due the conditions that music studios include in their licensing agreements. Unfortunately, unless you really, truly need to ability to download music when you're away from your computer, the drawbacks to this device when compared to a similarly-priced, video-playing 30GB iPod don't seem to outweigh the limited benefits you'll derive from its wireless capabilities.Read- The Wall Street Journal's Walter MossbergRead- CnetRead- Laptop Magazine
