Amie Street
Encyclopedia
Amie Street was an indie
online music store
and social network service
created in 2006 by Brown University
seniors Elliott Breece, Elias Roman, and Joshua Boltuch, in Providence
, Rhode Island
. They have since graduated and moved the company to Long Island City
in Queens
, New York
.
Their vision for Amie Street was to become "the most fun way to discover and buy music online", keep music social, and support the artists.
of TechCrunch
. Amie Street's catalog and stability have grown steadily since then, adding nine members to the team and creating partnerships with various record label
s including CD Baby
, The Orchard
, Nettwerk Music Group
, and Daptone Records
. A few weeks after the initial crush of traffic an alpha version was completed and a beta version was launched on October 4, 2006. On December 11, 2007, Amie Street Japan launched in partnership with Turbolinux
. They announced that they will experiment with applying the variable pricing system to other digital media
products including anime
video
s and manga
comics
.
, closed their Series A round
of venture capital
funding. They began negotiations for the round in January 2007. Notable angel investor
s include Robin Richards, former president of MP3.com
and David Hirsch, director of Google
's B2B
vertical markets group.
to determine song prices based on demand. The price for a track starts at zero when a song is uploaded onto the site. It then rises according to the increased demand and purchase of the song. The maximum price any song will rise to is 98¢
. A pricing calculator showed the simple model used to determine pricing, but it is no longer available. The price curve changes based on the overall volume of songs purchased on the site. As of August 5, 2007 15 buys yielded a price of 1¢, 25 buys yielded 15¢, 50 buys yielded 50¢, and 84 buys yielded 98¢.
format at whatever quality bit rate
they choose, but when a record label or music distributor requires Amie Street to encode the music, they strive to achieve an average bit rate of 256 kbit/s using a variable bitrate
. (Other formats such as AAC
, FLAC, and Ogg
are "on the way.") As users buy songs, the artist is credited quarterly. Artists keep 70% of the proceeds after US$
5 in sales for each song. Album
s are priced at the current total cost for each individual song on the album, capped at US$8.98 in most cases. PayPal
, Payoneer
prepaid MasterCard
s, or checks
are used to make payments to artists. There is some speculation that Amazon's new web service
Amazon FPS
would be a good match for the site as well. BitCash is used for payments in Japan
.
A ringtone service was announced on September 17, 2007 through a partnership with Myxer
. Pricing for ringtones is also variable, starting out free and climbing to US$1.99. This service "doesn't appear to be available yet."
integration) user profiles. There is also a "fan" feature so users can easily connect with bands on the site. All of this information is neatly organized on each user's dashboard and available as separate RSS
web feed
s.
Application in October 2007 called Fantasy Record Label. This application allowed Facebook users to create a "record label" with a collection of songs that were linked with an Amie Street account, and post the label on their Facebook profile page. Songs were ranked and as their score changed, each user's label would gain or lose points. These points could be converted into Amie Street credit and could be used to purchase music. Labels were also ranked and users were able to compete against each other for bragging rights. However, the Fantasy Record Label application has since been suspended and is no longer available.
Presently Facebook Beacon
is used to link purchases on Amie Street to users' Facebook accounts. Facebook Connect and other integration tools to import data from The Hype Machine
, iTunes
, Last.fm
, Pandora
, and Songza
are used to generate automated music recommendations.
. The tracks are "Rushian" and "Waitress" from the album Us Against the Crown
by State Radio
and "Awakening" and "From Now On" by Sonny Fortune
.
On March 28, 2007, Amie Street expanded their benefit media program with six more tracks to boost donations for Boomer Esiason
's Foundation and the Blubrry Jam campaign to fight cystic fibrosis
. Also priced at 50¢, Brother Love
and HER and Kings County each contributed three tracks to the cause.
On July 16, 2008, Amie Street launched "Download To Make A Difference", a new benefit media campaign. With each free download of Peter Buffett
and Akon
's single "Anything", Amie Street will donate US$2 to the Creative Visions Foundation. On July 29, 2008, Amie Street expanded their benefit media program with the exclusive pre-release of a new album, You & Me by NYC indie rock band, The Walkmen
. 100% of proceeds from the album, sold for US$5, are being donated to Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
. During its first week of sales, the album charted at #29 on Billboard
's Top Digital Albums
.
teamed up with Amie Street to sell music featured in episodes of the show.
, The Wall Street Journal
, BusinessWeek
, NPR, The Washington Post
, Los Angeles Times
, Entertainment Weekly
, TechCrunch
, Boing Boing
, Ars Technica
, and Wired
.
, the call girl
at the center of the prostitution scandal
with Eliot Spitzer
. An unsigned singer, her single "Move Ya Body" set a record for how fast it commanded the top price on the site following Dupré's identity as the call girl "Kristen" being revealed by The New York Times
on March 12, 2008. While some speculated that she may have earned as much as US$300,000 - US$1.4 million from download sales of her singles on Amie Street, others estimated her earnings to be as low as US$13,720. Official sales numbers have not been released.
Indie (music)
In music, independent music, often shortened to indie music or "indie" is a term used to describe independence from major commercial record labels or their subsidiaries, and an autonomous, Do-It-Yourself approach to recording and publishing....
online music store
Online music store
An online music store is an online business which sells audio files, usually music, on a per-song and/or subscription basis. It may be differentiated from music streaming services in that the music store offers the actual music file, while streaming services offer partial or full listening without...
and social network service
Social network service
A social networking service is an online service, platform, or site that focuses on building and reflecting of social networks or social relations among people, who, for example, share interests and/or activities. A social network service consists of a representation of each user , his/her social...
created in 2006 by Brown University
Brown University
Brown University is a private, Ivy League university located in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Founded in 1764 prior to American independence from the British Empire as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations early in the reign of King George III ,...
seniors Elliott Breece, Elias Roman, and Joshua Boltuch, in Providence
Providence, Rhode Island
Providence is the capital and most populous city of Rhode Island and was one of the first cities established in the United States. Located in Providence County, it is the third largest city in the New England region...
, Rhode Island
Rhode Island
The state of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, more commonly referred to as Rhode Island , is a state in the New England region of the United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area...
. They have since graduated and moved the company to Long Island City
Long Island City, Queens
Long Island City is the westernmost neighborhood of the borough of Queens in New York City. L.I.C. is notable for its rapid and ongoing gentrification, its waterfront parks, and its thriving arts community. L.I.C. has among the highest concentration of art galleries, art institutions, and studio...
in Queens
Queens
Queens is the easternmost of the five boroughs of New York City. The largest borough in area and the second-largest in population, it is coextensive with Queens County, an administrative division of New York state, in the United States....
, New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
.
Their vision for Amie Street was to become "the most fun way to discover and buy music online", keep music social, and support the artists.
History
Founded in early 2006, Amie Street opened to the public with a pre-alpha version on July 4, 2006 and was quickly scooped by Michael ArringtonMichael Arrington
J. Michael Arrington is the founder and former co-editor of TechCrunch, a blog covering the Silicon Valley technology start-up communities and the wider technology field in USA and elsewhere...
of TechCrunch
TechCrunch
TechCrunch is a web publication that offers technology news and analysis, as well as profiling of startup companies, products, and websites. It was founded by Michael Arrington in 2005, and was first published on June 11, 2005....
. Amie Street's catalog and stability have grown steadily since then, adding nine members to the team and creating partnerships with various record label
Record label
In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...
s including CD Baby
CD Baby
CD Baby is an online music store specializing in the sale of CDs and digital music downloads from independent musicians to consumers. The company is also a digital aggregator of independent music recordings, distributing content to several online digital music retailers.CD Baby has achieved recent...
, The Orchard
The Orchard (music label)
The Orchard is a New York City based digital distribution and entertainment services company that works with independent artists and labels, and content providers...
, Nettwerk Music Group
Nettwerk
The Nettwerk Music Group is the umbrella company for Nettwerk Management, Nettwerk Records, Nettwerk One Publishing, Nutone Records, and Artwerk. With over 150 employees, the Vancouver-based company has offices in New York, Los Angeles, London, Boston, Nashville, and Hamburg...
, and Daptone Records
Daptone Records
Daptone Records is a funk and soul independent record label formed by Gabriel Roth and Neal Sugarman and based in Brooklyn, New York.After the demise of the Desco label Gabriel Roth teamed up with Neal Sugarman to create a new label, Daptone Records...
. A few weeks after the initial crush of traffic an alpha version was completed and a beta version was launched on October 4, 2006. On December 11, 2007, Amie Street Japan launched in partnership with Turbolinux
Turbolinux
-Linux distribution:The Turbolinux distribution was created as a rebranded Red Hat distribution by Pacific HiTech employee Scott Stone. Scott was the lead release engineer through version 3.6....
. They announced that they will experiment with applying the variable pricing system to other digital media
Digital media
Digital media is a form of electronic media where data is stored in digital form. It can refer to the technical aspect of storage and transmission Digital media is a form of electronic media where data is stored in digital (as opposed to analog) form. It can refer to the technical aspect of...
products including anime
Anime
is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....
video
Video
Video is the technology of electronically capturing, recording, processing, storing, transmitting, and reconstructing a sequence of still images representing scenes in motion.- History :...
s and manga
Manga
Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...
comics
Comics
Comics denotes a hybrid medium having verbal side of its vocabulary tightly tied to its visual side in order to convey narrative or information only, the latter in case of non-fiction comics, seeking synergy by using both visual and verbal side in...
.
Investors
As reported by TechCrunch on August 5, 2007, Amie Street announced a site redesign and, led by Amazon.comAmazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. is a multinational electronic commerce company headquartered in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the world's largest online retailer. Amazon has separate websites for the following countries: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, and...
, closed their Series A round
Series A round
A Series A round is the name typically given to a company's first significant round of venture funding in the Silicon Valley model of startup company formation....
of venture capital
Venture capital
Venture capital is financial capital provided to early-stage, high-potential, high risk, growth startup companies. The venture capital fund makes money by owning equity in the companies it invests in, which usually have a novel technology or business model in high technology industries, such as...
funding. They began negotiations for the round in January 2007. Notable angel investor
Angel investor
An angel investor or angel is an affluent individual who provides capital for a business start-up, usually in exchange for convertible debt or ownership equity...
s include Robin Richards, former president of MP3.com
MP3.com
MP3.com is a web site operated by CNET Networks providing information about digital music and artists, songs, services, community, and technologies. It is probably better known for its original incarnation, as a legal, free music-sharing service, popular with independent musicians for promoting...
and David Hirsch, director of Google
Google
Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
's B2B
Business-to-business
Business-to-business describes commerce transactions between businesses, such as between a manufacturer and a wholesaler, or between a wholesaler and a retailer...
vertical markets group.
Website features
Artists upload tracks onto the site, which allows users to purchase them at a price that varies according to demand. Website users earn credits by recommending ("REC"ing) songs to their friends. If the REC was for a good song and leads to users purchasing it, the price of the song will increase. The user earns credit based on the increase in the price of the song after making the REC.Demand-based pricing
Amie Street uses an algorithmAlgorithm
In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm is an effective method expressed as a finite list of well-defined instructions for calculating a function. Algorithms are used for calculation, data processing, and automated reasoning...
to determine song prices based on demand. The price for a track starts at zero when a song is uploaded onto the site. It then rises according to the increased demand and purchase of the song. The maximum price any song will rise to is 98¢
Cent (United States coin)
The United States one-cent coin, commonly known as a penny, is a unit of currency equaling one one-hundredth of a United States dollar. The cent's symbol is ¢. Its obverse has featured the profile of President Abraham Lincoln since 1909, the centennial of his birth. From 1959 to 2008, the reverse...
. A pricing calculator showed the simple model used to determine pricing, but it is no longer available. The price curve changes based on the overall volume of songs purchased on the site. As of August 5, 2007 15 buys yielded a price of 1¢, 25 buys yielded 15¢, 50 buys yielded 50¢, and 84 buys yielded 98¢.
Selling music
Artists can upload their music directly to the site in MP3MP3
MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...
format at whatever quality bit rate
Bit rate
In telecommunications and computing, bit rate is the number of bits that are conveyed or processed per unit of time....
they choose, but when a record label or music distributor requires Amie Street to encode the music, they strive to achieve an average bit rate of 256 kbit/s using a variable bitrate
Variable bitrate
Variable bitrate is a term used in telecommunications and computing that relates to the bitrate used in sound or video encoding. As opposed to constant bitrate , VBR files vary the amount of output data per time segment...
. (Other formats such as AAC
Advanced Audio Coding
Advanced Audio Coding is a standardized, lossy compression and encoding scheme for digital audio. Designed to be the successor of the MP3 format, AAC generally achieves better sound quality than MP3 at similar bit rates....
, FLAC, and Ogg
Ogg
Ogg is a free, open container format maintained by the Xiph.Org Foundation. The creators of the Ogg format state that it is unrestricted by software patents and is designed to provide for efficient streaming and manipulation of high quality digital multimedia.The Ogg container format can multiplex...
are "on the way.") As users buy songs, the artist is credited quarterly. Artists keep 70% of the proceeds after US$
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
5 in sales for each song. Album
Album
An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...
s are priced at the current total cost for each individual song on the album, capped at US$8.98 in most cases. PayPal
PayPal
PayPal is an American-based global e-commerce business allowing payments and money transfers to be made through the Internet. Online money transfers serve as electronic alternatives to paying with traditional paper methods, such as checks and money orders....
, Payoneer
Payoneer
Payoneer is an Internet-based financial services business that allows users to transfer money and receive payments through re-loadable prepaid MasterCard debit cards...
prepaid MasterCard
MasterCard
Mastercard Incorporated or MasterCard Worldwide is an American multinational financial services corporation with its headquarters in the MasterCard International Global Headquarters, Purchase, Harrison, New York, United States...
s, or checks
Cheque
A cheque is a document/instrument See the negotiable cow—itself a fictional story—for discussions of cheques written on unusual surfaces. that orders a payment of money from a bank account...
are used to make payments to artists. There is some speculation that Amazon's new web service
Amazon Web Services
Amazon Web Services is a collection of remote computing services that together make up a cloud computing platform, offered over the Internet by Amazon.com...
Amazon FPS
Amazon Flexible Payments Service
Amazon FPS is an Amazon Web Service that allows the transfer of money between two entities. The service was launched as a limited beta in August 2007, and later in February 2009 was promoted to General Availability...
would be a good match for the site as well. BitCash is used for payments in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
.
A ringtone service was announced on September 17, 2007 through a partnership with Myxer
Myxer
Myxer is a Deerfield Beach, Florida-based website that allows users to upload and download a variety of media for cell phones. Users can download for free, with an exception to carrier charges for texts and data .-History:...
. Pricing for ringtones is also variable, starting out free and climbing to US$1.99. This service "doesn't appear to be available yet."
RECs
Non-artist users can earn credit as well. They do this by RECing a song. When a user finds a song they believe will be a hit, they can REC it. If the song price increases from the moment they REC it, they will receive compensation based on the price increase. For example, if one RECs a song currently at 5¢ and it rises to 95¢, the user will cash out half the just for RECing the song. If a user RECs a song when it is free, they are compensated with the full spread. RECing also differentiates more popular music from less, as songs that are believed to be good will be RECed more often. Users get approximately 1 REC for every US$1 of Amie Street credit they purchase.Social networking
Users can connect with other users through the "friend" feature. "Friends" on Amie Street are intended to be based around musical interests. RECs are sent out to friends to make it easier to find new music in a music "news feed". Users can message each other and post comments on freely customizable (including MeeboMeebo
Meebo is a social platform connecting users with their friends across the web. It began in 2005 as a browser based instant messaging program which supported multiple IM services, including Yahoo! Messenger, Windows Live Messenger, AIM, ICQ, MySpaceIM, Facebook Chat, Google Talk, CafeMom and...
integration) user profiles. There is also a "fan" feature so users can easily connect with bands on the site. All of this information is neatly organized on each user's dashboard and available as separate RSS
RSS
-Mathematics:* Root-sum-square, the square root of the sum of the squares of the elements of a data set* Residual sum of squares in statistics-Technology:* RSS , "Really Simple Syndication" or "Rich Site Summary", a family of web feed formats...
web feed
Web feed
A web feed is a data format used for providing users with frequently updated content. Content distributors syndicate a web feed, thereby allowing users to subscribe to it. Making a collection of web feeds accessible in one spot is known as aggregation, which is performed by an aggregator...
s.
Third party integration
Amie Street launched a FacebookFacebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
Application in October 2007 called Fantasy Record Label. This application allowed Facebook users to create a "record label" with a collection of songs that were linked with an Amie Street account, and post the label on their Facebook profile page. Songs were ranked and as their score changed, each user's label would gain or lose points. These points could be converted into Amie Street credit and could be used to purchase music. Labels were also ranked and users were able to compete against each other for bragging rights. However, the Fantasy Record Label application has since been suspended and is no longer available.
Presently Facebook Beacon
Facebook Beacon
Beacon was a part of Facebook's advertisement system that sent data from external websites to Facebook, for the purpose of allowing targeted advertisements and allowing users to share their activities with their friends. Certain activities on partner sites were published to a user's News Feed....
is used to link purchases on Amie Street to users' Facebook accounts. Facebook Connect and other integration tools to import data from The Hype Machine
The Hype Machine
-History:The Hype Machine was created in 2005 by Anthony Volodkin, a sophomore computer science major at Hunter College. The site was born out of Volodkin's frustration with music magazines and radio stations. He said, "I discovered MP3 blogs like Stereogum and Music for Robots...
, iTunes
ITunes
iTunes is a media player computer program, used for playing, downloading, and organizing digital music and video files on desktop computers. It can also manage contents on iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad....
, Last.fm
Last.fm
Last.fm is a music website, founded in the United Kingdom in 2002. It has claimed 30 million active users in March 2009. On 30 May 2007, CBS Interactive acquired Last.fm for UK£140m ....
, Pandora
Pandora
In Greek mythology, Pandora was the first woman. As Hesiod related it, each god helped create her by giving her unique gifts...
, and Songza
Songza
Songza is a web radio that streams music for free. Songza is different from other web radio services for two reasons: the stations on Songza are made by people and Songza helps people find stations by personalizing the Songza experience based on a user's interests and by displaying an activity feed...
are used to generate automated music recommendations.
Benefit media: Download To Make A Difference campaign
On November 6, 2006, Amie Street introduced four benefit media tracks to the site. These songs are priced at 50¢ and all proceeds from sales go to the charity Free The ChildrenFree The Children
Free The Children is an international charity and youth movement founded in 1995 by children's rights advocate Craig Kielburger. The organization is largely youth-funded, based on the concept of "children helping children." It specializes in sustainable development in countries of Kenya, Ecuador,...
. The tracks are "Rushian" and "Waitress" from the album Us Against the Crown
Us Against the Crown
Us Against the Crown is the first full-length LP from reggae-rock band State Radio, headlined by former Dispatch vocalist, Chad Urmston.-Track listing:# People to People – 4:16# Mr...
by State Radio
State Radio
State Radio is an alternative rock band from Sherborn, Massachusetts, consisting of Chad Urmston , Chuck Fay and Mike Najarian...
and "Awakening" and "From Now On" by Sonny Fortune
Sonny Fortune
Sonny Fortune is an American jazz alto saxophonist and flautist. He also plays soprano saxophone, tenor saxophone, baritone saxophone and clarinet.-Biography:...
.
On March 28, 2007, Amie Street expanded their benefit media program with six more tracks to boost donations for Boomer Esiason
Boomer Esiason
Norman Julius "Boomer" Esiason is a former American football quarterback and current network color commentator. He played for the National Football League's Cincinnati Bengals, New York Jets, and Arizona Cardinals before working as an analyst for ABC and HBO...
's Foundation and the Blubrry Jam campaign to fight cystic fibrosis
Cystic fibrosis
Cystic fibrosis is a recessive genetic disease affecting most critically the lungs, and also the pancreas, liver, and intestine...
. Also priced at 50¢, Brother Love
Brother Love (artist)
Brother Love, also known as Larry Florman, is perhaps the first artist to receive truly large-scale recognition through his involvement in podsafe music...
and HER and Kings County each contributed three tracks to the cause.
On July 16, 2008, Amie Street launched "Download To Make A Difference", a new benefit media campaign. With each free download of Peter Buffett
Peter Buffett
Peter Andrew Buffett is an American musician, composer, author and producer. Buffett is the second son of investor Warren Buffett and his late wife Susan Buffett.-Biography:...
and Akon
Akon
Aliaune Damala Badara Thiam, better known as simply Akon , is a Senegalese American R&B recording artist and songwriter.According to Forbes, Akon grossed $21 million in 2010, $20 million in 2009 and $12 million in 2008. He rose to prominence in 2004 following the release of "Locked Up", the first...
's single "Anything", Amie Street will donate US$2 to the Creative Visions Foundation. On July 29, 2008, Amie Street expanded their benefit media program with the exclusive pre-release of a new album, You & Me by NYC indie rock band, The Walkmen
The Walkmen
The Walkmen are an American indie rock band, with members based in New York City and Philadelphia. The band formed in 2000 with three members from Jonathan Fire*Eater—Paul Maroon , Walter Martin , and Matt Barrick —and two from The Recoys, Peter Bauer and Hamilton Leithauser . All but Bauer...
. 100% of proceeds from the album, sold for US$5, are being donated to Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
Memorial Sloan–Kettering Cancer Center is a cancer treatment and research institution founded in 1884 as the New York Cancer Hospital...
. During its first week of sales, the album charted at #29 on Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
's Top Digital Albums
Billboard charts
The Billboard charts tabulate the relative weekly popularity of songs or albums in the United States. The results are published in Billboard magazine...
.
lonelygirl15 partnership
On May 15, 2007, lonelygirl15Lonelygirl15
lonelygirl15 was an interactive web-based video series which began in June 2006 and ran through to August 1, 2008. Developed under the working title The Children of Anchor Cove, the show gained worldwide media attention when it was outed as fictional in September 2006.-Overview:lonelygirl15...
teamed up with Amie Street to sell music featured in episodes of the show.
Takeover by Amazon
In an email to Amie Street members on September 8, 2010, the website announced it would be redirecting all customers to Amazon.com starting on September 22, 2010 and ceasing to operate as amiestreet.com. While the digital, downloadable files from Amie Street will all be available on Amazon, demand-based pricing will cease and buyers will have to pay typical Amazon.com prices for their digital music, which in most cases is higher (sometimes significantly so) than the prices for the same music on Amie Street currently. Amie Street members have until September 22 to spend any credit they currently have with Amie Street, as it will not transfer to Amazon. Current members were instead given a small credit of $5 for Amazon mp3s as appreciation for their support of Amie Street over the years. Amazon reportedly shut down Amie Street on the morning of September 9, 2010, but as of the afternoon of September 9 the website was still active, just with an "important Message From Amie Street" informing users that the website would be redirected to Amazon on September 22, 2010 and to make sure all purchases were downloaded by that time and to use up all credits (which would not be transferable to Amazon).Press
Amie Street has been mentioned in several notable media organizations. These include Rolling StoneRolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
, The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal is an American English-language international daily newspaper. It is published in New York City by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corporation, along with the Asian and European editions of the Journal....
, BusinessWeek
BusinessWeek
Bloomberg Businessweek, commonly and formerly known as BusinessWeek, is a weekly business magazine published by Bloomberg L.P. It is currently headquartered in New York City.- History :...
, NPR, The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
, Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
, Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
, TechCrunch
TechCrunch
TechCrunch is a web publication that offers technology news and analysis, as well as profiling of startup companies, products, and websites. It was founded by Michael Arrington in 2005, and was first published on June 11, 2005....
, Boing Boing
Boing Boing
Boing Boing is a publishing entity, first established as a magazine, later becoming a group blog.-History:...
, Ars Technica
Ars Technica
Ars Technica is a technology news and information website created by Ken Fisher and Jon Stokes in 1998. It publishes news, reviews and guides on issues such as computer hardware and software, science, technology policy, and video games. Ars Technica is known for its features, long articles that go...
, and Wired
Wired (magazine)
Wired is a full-color monthly American magazine and on-line periodical, published since January 1993, that reports on how new and developing technology affects culture, the economy, and politics...
.
Ashley Alexandra Dupré
In March 2008, the site received additional attention because of the availability of two singles by Ashley Alexandra DupréAshley Alexandra Dupré
Ashley Rae Maika DiPietro better known by the stage name Ashley Alexandra Dupré, is a former call girl. She is currently an American sex columnist for the New York Post and a singer. She became a public figure when it was disclosed that she was the woman at the center of the Eliot Spitzer...
, the call girl
Call girl
A call girl or female escort is a sex worker who is not visible to the general public; nor does she usually work in an institution like a brothel, although she may be employed by an escort agency...
at the center of the prostitution scandal
Eliot Spitzer prostitution scandal
The Eliot Spitzer prostitution scandal began on March 10, 2008, when The New York Times reported that Democratic New York Governor Eliot Spitzer had patronized a prostitution service called Emperors Club VIP...
with Eliot Spitzer
Eliot Spitzer
Eliot Laurence Spitzer is an American lawyer, former Democratic Party politician, and political commentator. He was the co-host of In the Arena, a talk-show and punditry forum broadcast on CNN until CNN cancelled his show in July of 2011...
. An unsigned singer, her single "Move Ya Body" set a record for how fast it commanded the top price on the site following Dupré's identity as the call girl "Kristen" being revealed by The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
on March 12, 2008. While some speculated that she may have earned as much as US$300,000 - US$1.4 million from download sales of her singles on Amie Street, others estimated her earnings to be as low as US$13,720. Official sales numbers have not been released.
See also
- CrowdsourcingCrowdsourcingCrowdsourcing is the act of sourcing tasks traditionally performed by specific individuals to a group of people or community through an open call....
- Silicon AlleySilicon AlleySilicon Alley is a nickname for an area with a concentration of Internet and new media companies in Manhattan, New York City. Originally, the term referred to the cluster of such companies extending from the Flatiron District down to SoHo and TriBeCa along the Broadway corridor, but as the location...
- Social commerceSocial commerceSocial commerce is a subset of electronic commerce that involves using social media, online media that supports social interaction and user contributions, to assist in the online buying and selling of products and services....
- SongzaSongzaSongza is a web radio that streams music for free. Songza is different from other web radio services for two reasons: the stations on Songza are made by people and Songza helps people find stations by personalizing the Songza experience based on a user's interests and by displaying an activity feed...
- The Cult of SincerityThe Cult of SincerityThe Cult of Sincerity is an independent film about hipster culture and postmodernist irony set in Williamsburg in Brooklyn, New York. It was released on April 8, 2008. The film has not received conventional distribution and is notable only as being the first feature film intentionally released in...
- Web 2.0Web 2.0The term Web 2.0 is associated with web applications that facilitate participatory information sharing, interoperability, user-centered design, and collaboration on the World Wide Web...
Further reading
- Amie Street: Awesome New Music Model - TechCrunchTechCrunchTechCrunch is a web publication that offers technology news and analysis, as well as profiling of startup companies, products, and websites. It was founded by Michael Arrington in 2005, and was first published on June 11, 2005....
article that first broke the company back in July 2006 after being open to the public for less than 20 days. - New Ways to Get Music - ExtremeTechExtremeTechExtremeTech is a technology weblog about hardware, computer software, science, and other state of the art technologies which launched in June 2001...
review of Amie Street. - Interview with Amie Street Founder Joshua Boltuch
- The Well-Rounded Radio audio interview with Amie Street co-founder Joshua Boltuch
External links
- Amie Street
- Amie Street Japan, ,
- Amie Street at Last.fmLast.fmLast.fm is a music website, founded in the United Kingdom in 2002. It has claimed 30 million active users in March 2009. On 30 May 2007, CBS Interactive acquired Last.fm for UK£140m ....