Decoder with Nilay Patel Why Amazon VP Steve Boom just made the entire music catalog free with Prime
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Nov 1, 2022 Steve Boom, VP of Amazon Music, shares his insights on the groundbreaking changes at Amazon Music for Prime members, including access to 100 million songs. He discusses the complexities of negotiating with record labels and the challenge of ensuring artists receive fair compensation. The conversation also touches on the strategic importance of podcasts in Amazon's ecosystem, especially with the ad-free Wondery catalog, and how technology is reshaping the music industry landscape, potentially setting trends for other sectors.
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Amazon Music's Origin
- Steve Boom joined Amazon in 2012 when it sold MP3 downloads.
- Recognizing the shift to streaming, Boom proposed Prime Music, a limited catalog service, in 2013.
Music Streaming Value Proposition
- Music streaming services offer immense value compared to other entertainment subscriptions.
- For a fixed price, users access almost all music globally, unlike video services with fragmented catalogs.
Amazon's Decision-Making Framework
- Amazon Music uses a decision-making framework of one-way and two-way door decisions.
- One-way decisions are hard to reverse, like adding music to Prime, while two-way decisions allow for experimentation and are easily reversible.