Much back room chatter at the Annual Digital Music Forum that kicked off in New York yesterday was regarding Amazon's ambitions in the digital music space. As previously reported, the e-tailer is rumoured to be close to launching its own download platform and, possibly, an Amazon branded MP3 player.
One executive at the Forum told Digital Music News that we could expect some exciting things from the Amazon digital music platform when it finally arrives - with the e-tailer using the clout it has in the music industry to force the labels into some more interesting services. DMN quote the exec as saying: "They sell a lot of music, and that could affect advances. They will probably negotiate lower advances for the right to use catalog, and gain more favorable terms overall."
Meanwhile one music industry attorney has told DMN that Amazon will need to link download and hardware sales to make any digital music venture a success: "The only success that people have had selling digital music are those that are using it to sell hardware or broadband. If Amazon can get a chunk of the portable music player revenues, they may have a chance to succeed, just as Steve Jobs made billions selling iPods, and almost no money from digital music".