This is not Netflix

Subscription music services face a new scourge on their bottom line: "Windowing." This vaguely creepy term stands for a practice adopted by some artists in an effort to boost album sales. Musicians such as Adele and Coldplay withhold new albums from the likes of Spotify for a period of time after release, just as there is about a month's delay between the release of a new film and that film becoming available on Netflix. Spotify in particular hates the practice, and Spotify's chief content officer Ken Parks told Fast Company so in no uncertain terms:

My initial take is that it's a very bad idea. From a user standpoint, it's a pretty hostile proposition. The notion that you would want to withhold records from people who are paying 120 pounds or euros or dollars a year is just really mind-boggling. It's pretty hostile to punish your best customers and fans. We think it's a wrongheaded approach.

Mr. Parks also said there was "no data whatsoever" to indicate "Windowing" even works.

Fast Company asked Mr. Parks if "Windowing" might alienate Spotify customers. He acknowledged that was one of the risks but shifted the onus back to the artists, saying they "risk being on the sidelines." Musicians, Mr. Parks said, "risk people not caring about [their] music."

As Betabeat noted here, the artists have already expressed opinions on the money they get from Spotify, and many aren't too happy with the arrangement.

As AllThingsD reports, Amazon had to issue an apology last night to Kindle owners who received a notice about automatic enrollment for a subscription to something called the Kindle Compass that: 1. they didn't sign up for and 2. "would automatically continue at the monthly subscription rate” if they did nothing. Nothing like hearing that the mere act of going about your day as usual now comes with a mysterious additional fee.

Not all Kindle owners received the email. But the ones who did were, naturally, confused. No monthly rate was mentioned and customers jumped on Kindle forums to post complaints like under rubrics like “Where is Kindle Compass Magazine?” and “Auto-Subscription to the Kindle Compass??”

Just as the Times' customer phone lines were too tied up to explain, Amazon customer service likewise couldn't help. "Even worse, those who contacted customers service said the reps weren’t familiar with the service, so the best they could do was help them to unsubscribe to ensure they would not be charged," says AllThingsD.

In the email apology that went out to customers hours later, Amazon explained that the Kindle Compass was a pilot project and apologized for confusion about subscription prices:

This morning we sent you an email regarding The Kindle Compass, a new free publication built by the Kindle editorial team that we’re piloting to a small number of Kindle customers.

This email incorrectly referred to The Kindle Compass as a subscription with a free trial. We built it to always be free for customers, and you will never be charged for it. We apologize for any confusion.

If you wish to unsubscribe from the pilot for The Kindle Compass you can do so from a link in the last section of the magazine, or from the Manage Your Kindle Subscriptions page at www.amazon.com/manageyourkindlesubscriptions.

What, no apology for the automatic, opt-out subscription part?

NY is en fuego for the Fire

There was a reason Jeff Bezos came all the way to New York to unveil Amazon's new suite of Kindle e-readers and tablet devices. Like the iPad the Kindle is first and foremost a device for consuming media, with the new Kindles going beyond the book to offer music, television and movies as well. And the Big Apple's high end publishers are thrilled to have a second dance partner for the party beyond Apple.

As the NY Times reports, Amazon's new Kindle Fire tablet will come with a digital newsstand front-and-center where users can buy magazines and newspapers. To glossy publishers, this sounds like a haven from a digital world dominated by Angry Birds.

“When you’re lost in the middle of 100,000 apps, you only have people who find you when they’re looking for you,” Bob Sauerberg, president of Condé Nast, told the paper. “This helps with getting consumers in. They pick what they want, and we sell them more of what interests them. And everybody is happy.”

Apple has been hoping to introduce its own newsstand for some time, and is expected to announce one within the next month. But Cupertino has struggled to come to terms with magazine publishers over their cut of subscription revenue. And sales of subscriptions on non-iPad devices, like Barnes and Noble's Nook, have already surpassed iPad sales for publishers like Hearst.

This new line of devices are all priced below $200, meaning they are most likely a loss leader to help Amazon establish themselves in the tablet market. So far it seems to be working, with the Kindle Fire and various flavors of Kindle sitting claiming the entire top ten for best selling gadgets on Amazon. Come Christmas time, the tablet market is going to look very different than it does today.