Amazon Buys AmieStreet Just To Shut It Down, Team Shifts Focus To Songza
Amazon has moved from investor in AmieStreet to owner with an acquisition made public today. But don't expect Amazon to embrace dynamic pricing anytime soon, as the internet giant appears to be shutting the store down. The team will now shift focus to Songza, says Joshua Blotuch of AmieStreet.
"As of September 22, 2010, all AmieStreet.com pages will be forwarded to Amazon.com and you will no longer be able to use AmieStreet.com or any of its services," read an email sent to users this morning. All active AmieStreet.com customers will receive a $5 credit to the Amazon MP3 store.
The move can only be seen as a failure for dynamic pricing in music. Under AmieStreet's model, download prices were determined by fan interest rewarding those that discover new music early. Now the Amie Street, Inc. team will concentrate its efforts on ramping up their social music streaming service, Songza.
Currently in beta, the new Songza.com service gives users the ability to create their own internet radio stations from a library of over 8 million songs and to collaborate on group stations around shared interests. Examples include a Mad Men Tribute station, a Georgia Southern University station, and Yelp's Miami Office station.
I definitely have more than $5 of credit in my Amie Street account. I hope there will be time allotted to be able to use the rest of our credit, download purchased content and/or get a refund, as the Amie Street website is currently down.