Blog: Amazon

Read our latest daily deep dives, hot takes, and exciting updates about the entertainment world. Check out the latest insight from your favourite analyst, or search by coverage areas - music, entertainment and fandom, creator economy and social.

The future of AI-generated audiobooks is here

Cover image for The future of AI-generated audiobooks is here
Rutger Rosenborg
In March, on the heels of a Danish man becoming the first person convicted of streaming fraud, MIDiA explained how AI could soon enable a golden age of audio piracy . Coupled with the fact that book publishers have been reporting that AI-generated books are being published under their names or oddly similar ones on sites like Amazon and Goodreads, there are big implications for audiobooks.
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What Audible’s new royalty model means for its audiobook battle with Spotify

Cover image for What Audible’s new royalty model means for its audiobook battle with Spotify
Rutger Rosenborg
In early July, Audible’s blog broke the news that the company was introducing a new royalty model for audiobooks. Previously, according to Bloomberg’s Ashley Carman , Audible would do a “buyout”, paying a publisher an upfront fee to have their book on the service rather than distributing royalties according to titles or hours listened.
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Amazon opens the IP tap for its Audible to Prime Video pipeline — your move, Apple

Cover image for Amazon opens the IP tap for its Audible to Prime Video pipeline — your move, Apple
Rutger Rosenborg
Marvel proved that spinning out intellectual property (IP) from comic books to movie franchises could be incredibly lucrative. With the growth of video games, this transmedia strategy has expanded to streaming video on demand (SVOD) with successes like The Last of Us on HBO Max and, most recently, Fallout on Amazon Prime Video.
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Format versus context: Can a YouTuber make it on TV?

Cover image for Format versus context: Can a YouTuber make it on TV?
Hanna Kahlert
YouTube star MrBeast is making recent headlines for his video upload experiment with X , and now a potential partnership with Amazon Prime Video for a new reality series. The competition to turn the popular YouTuber into an audience draw for other platforms is on –but can a star in one place, still be a star anywhere else? This would not be the first time an entertainment company has tried to convert a popular social media figure.
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Who will be the winners in video as the walled gardens of entertainment recede?

Cover image for Who will be the winners in video as the walled gardens of entertainment recede?
Ben Woods
Protectionist measures that kept the streaming wars alive are being wound back. Licenced content is back in vogue, despite streaming TV being built on exclusive shows. Competitive tensions are cooling as entertainment looks to bundle services to combat the cost-of-living crisis, and super aggregators are making it easier for consumers to switch between streaming services like linear TV channels.
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The future lies beyond tech – a long(er) read

Cover image for The future lies beyond tech – a long(er) read
Hanna Kahlert
As entertainment companies start planning their next big steps for the coming year, the success and failure of their strategic decisions will hinge on one big, and perhaps surprising, existential question : is this it for the tech industry? Planning for 2023 seems to mean planning for disruption, and this is no easy thing to do – especially given the changes already wrought by the last three years of predominately virtual working.
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