Amazon.com has taught readers that they do not need bookstores. Now it is encouraging writers to cast aside their publishers. “Everyone’s afraid of Amazon. ... If you’re a bookstore, Amazon has been in competition with you for some time. If you’re a publisher, one day you wake up and Amazon is competing with you too. And if you’re an agent, Amazon may be stealing your lunch because it is offering authors the opportunity to publish directly and cut you out." (Some adventures in self-publishing.) [more inside]
posted by SpacemanStix on Oct 17, 2011 - 68 comments

As Amazon and the RIAA go head to head over the Amazon Cloud Player (esentially Dropbox with streaming) it seems like a good time to recap the turbulent history of the humble MP3, upender of the music industry business model.
posted by Artw on Apr 4, 2011 - 83 comments

10 out of 13 million tracks available for purchase online didn't sell a single copy. Jut how Long can that Tail be, after all? Is the length of the tail mentioned in the article down to piracy or the state of the music industry as a whole? Is it possible to make a profit or break even on a niche website based on sales alone, and not on advertising revenue?
posted by Grrlscout on Dec 23, 2008 - 56 comments

"First, look up the most popular and critically-acclaimed books, movies, and music on Amazon. Click on 'Customer Reviews,' and sort them by 'Lowest Rating First'..." The Amazon.com Knee-Jerk Contrarian Game.
posted by reklaw on Jul 2, 2004 - 48 comments

CDNow cedes operations to Amazon.com. While looking up some 'non-traditional' Christmas music, I noticed this site's layout looked oddly familiar. Is there reason for concern about the fact that Amazon is taking over shop for it's rival or is this an example of using what's the 'best' in a competitive market?
posted by phyrewerx on Dec 7, 2002 - 26 comments

Environmentally Correct Dance Party Set for Amazon. "Brazil's lush Amazon rain forest may be best known for its isolated Indian tribes and abundant wildlife, but local officials hope it will soon be a hotbed of techno music ... [the] four-day 'rave' that is expected to lure tens of thousands of clubbers from around the world to all-night 'environmentally correct' dance parties." Can any one give me a ride?
posted by madreblu on Aug 3, 2001 - 7 comments

A friend gave me a promo CD of a band called Len. It's the weirdest mix of hip-hop, rock, old-school rap, and bubble-gum pop. It's strange, yet also the most satisfying thing I've heard in a while. If you read the reviews at Amazon, you can see that some people can accept multi-genre bands, and others can't.
posted by mathowie on Sep 14, 1999 - 0 comments