Kaleidescape Inc. originally looked to reduce the hassle of physical DVDs and Blu-ray discs by enabling consumers to copy the movies and save them to a hard drive. After being sued by the DVD Copy Control Association, the company has since revamped its business model to keep up in the digital age of downloads.
“The closely held company plans to let users of its hardware buy and download digital movies, while still being able to make and store copies of DVD and Blu-ray discs they own,” the Wall Street Journal writes. “Kaleidescape is initially stocking its first online store with movies licensed under a multiyear deal with Time Warner Inc.’s Warner Bros. movie studio.”
With numerous services that offer movies for rental, purchase or streaming, Kaleidescape is notably pricey.
“Kaleidescape’s systems, designed for people installing fancy home theaters, start at $14,490,” the article states. “But Kaleidescape hopes to build its audience among affluent customers who are willing to pay extra for the highest quality content, a sophisticated program guide and other features. Unlike most online video stores, the company says, its downloads will include all extra scenes and additional content found on DVD or Blu-ray discs.”
The deal with Time Warner provides the service with 3,000 feature films and more than 8,000 TV episodes, which will be priced between $6 to $20. Kaleidescape plans to enter licensing deals with other studios as well.
The company also supports the UltraViolet format. But downloading titles can take a while — up to five hours for a Blu-ray over a standard Internet connection.
A recent survey of dedicated music demographics indicates access to music from services like Spotify, YouTube, Grooveshark and others significantly decreases the interest in purchasing across all groups except the least dedicated.
“Services like Spotify increase access, but also decrease spending in many situations. Which means less money from higher-returning formats like iTunes downloads, CDs, and LPs,” according to Digital Music News. “But free access also includes a range of other services, including YouTube, Grooveshark, and various freebie competitors. And all of these are sapping the juice out of higher-end impulse buying, once a music industry lifeblood.”
The recently released findings from NPD Group and NARM have already had an impact. “Following a study that claims that streaming music is damaging to record sales, a distributor representing more than 200 labels has withdrawn its entire catalogue from Spotify, Napster, Simfy and Rdio,” reports Huffington Post.
“As a distributor we have to do what is best for our labels,” STHoldings explained in a statement. “The majority of which do not want their music on such services because of the poor revenues and the detrimental affect on sales. Add to that the feeling that their music loses its specialness by its exploitation as a low value/free commodity.”
In a related All Things D story, Spotify announced it has new things on the horizon, but has yet to provide details. “In New York on November 30th, we are holding our first press conference to unveil the latest major development from Spotify — and a new direction for the company. The press event will be hosted by CEO and Founder Daniel Ek, along with special guests,” wrote the company’s PR unit.
All Things D speculates Spotify may be releasing a U.S. service to buy songs (already available in Europe) or an iPad app, but “it is courting the risk of overpromising” if these are the only developments to be announced.
Mobile analytics firm Flurry has released new estimates based on iOS and Android app-enabled devices.
According to the report, 25 billion apps will be downloaded in 2011, marking 300 percent growth from last year’s six billion.
Five billion Apple and Android apps are expected to be downloaded in December alone, based on the surge typically associated with mobile shopping and people on break looking for entertainment.
Revenue from the U.S. market will reach $2.5 billion, compared with 2010’s $1 billion.
The increase in app catalogs has helped the increase. iOS offers about 500,000 apps and Android is around 350,000.
ReadWriteWeb also points out that only 43 percent of U.S. consumers currently have smartphones, but the number is expected to reach 50 percent by Q3 2012, which will also fuel app downloads.
Google’s music download store is expected to link with Google+ within the next two weeks. However, the service may prove disappointing if the company cannot secure deals with the four major music labels.
Tentatively named Google Music, the service would follow in the footsteps of Spotify, which earlier this fall linked with Facebook to promote its music service.
The Google+ integration would allow users to recommend songs to Google+ contacts, who could then listen to those songs once for free. MP3 downloads would then be available, most likely for 99 cents each.
Music labels have shown hesitation about the service’s propensity to allow piracy, in addition to the lack of revenue for record companies, as the music locker is free.
