Amazon Take On YouTube

Amazon has launched a new video platform for content owners. What a great idea, it’s almost funny that someone hadn’t already thought of it.

Amazon Video Direct (AVD) launched this week as an add on to Amazon video, the company’s Netflix style streaming service bundled with a Prime membership.

Music Business Worldwide reports that customers in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Austria and Japan “now have access to new movies, TV shows, docu-series and music videos from content creators”.

Until we start writing about docu-series, that last part is probably most relevant to readers of The Gen. However, no music companies have actually been announced as partners, at least not yet. The main concern for the industry will of course be copyright infringement and the takedown process and although Amazon has outlined how you can upload content to AVD, it has not issued details about takedown process- with the safe harbor storm raging in the background and much talk about the ‘value gap’ apparent in the growth of digital services, it may want to look at this soon. News of ‘another YouTube’ will stir mixed feelings across the industry to say the least.

Vice President of Amazon Video Jim Freeman was unsurprisingly ebullient about the new service, saying: “It’s an amazing time to be a content creator. There are more options for distribution than ever before and with Amazon Video Direct, for the first time, there’s a self-service option for video providers to get their content into a premium streaming subscription service. We’re excited to make it even easier for content creators to find an audience, and for that audience to find great content”.