Author: Katherine Noyes - Page 2 - Subscription Insider

Apple Cuts Microsoft No Slack on Subscription Sales Via Office for iPad

FInance, News, Payment Processing, Subscription Apps / Katherine Noyes

By Katherine Noyes Software as a service (SaaS) may not figure as prominently as other subscription-based products on our pages here on Subscription Site Central, but there’s no denying the growing category can offer some instructive insights for a variety of subscription-based sites. Enter the new Office apps for iPad, which Microsoft rolled out last week. Microsoft Office general manager Julia White unveiled the apps at a press event in San Francisco, and while the product is…

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New York Times Unveils Two New Paywall Tiers, Takes a Risk with Native Ads

Industry Announcements, News, Payment Processing, Subscription Apps / Katherine Noyes

By Katherine Noyes The New York Times on Wednesday announced that it is expanding its digital subscription product offerings with two new tiered options: NYT Now, an entry-level plan that offers a limited set of content at a price below the standard subscription rate, and Times Premier, an upper-level subscription plan “designed for the most enthusiastic and engaged Times subscribers,” the company said. Whereas a standard New York Times digital subscription starts at $3.75 per week…

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Download Payment Tool from Tinypass Keeps Customers on Your Site

Industry Announcements, News, Subscriber Acquisition / Katherine Noyes

By Katherine Noyes We’ve written about Tinypass on a few occasions before, including its launch in late 2012 of a metered paywall platform. The company continued to grow nicely over the course of last year, and recently it rolled out a new offering. Tinypass Downloads, which made its debut last week, aims to make it easy for publishers to quickly sell access to downloadable assets on their own sites. The tool can be implemented in just minutes,…

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Global Music Subscription Revenues Surpass $1 Billion with 28 Million Paying Subscribers

FInance, News / Katherine Noyes

By Katherine Noyes Hard on the heels of the Entertainment Retailers Association’s recent news that music streaming services’ 2013 revenues were up 34% year on year in the UK, both the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) last week published reports indicating that digital subscriptions stand out as a ray of sunshine and hope for the beleaguered music industry. The IFPI recently reported that revenue from music subscription…

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Washington Post Offers Free Access for Partners’ Digital Subscribers

Industry Announcements, News, Subscriber Acquisition / Katherine Noyes

By Katherine Noyes It’s been almost a year since The Washington Post announced that it was planning to introduce a paywall, and though we wouldn’t consider its implementation perfect, it has employed some promising tactics along the way, including launching an engaging mobile app and using its own journalists to market the paywall. This week, it made another notable move. Specifically, on Tuesday The Post announced that it will soon pilot a new program whereby partner publications…

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Amazon Prime’s Price Hike Sparks Controversy, But the Jury Is Still Out

FInance, News, Payment Processing, Subscriber Acquisition, Subscriber Retention / Katherine Noyes

By Katherine Noyes When Amazon increased the yearly cost of Prime membership in the UK from £49 to £79 a few weeks ago, there were already rumors that a similar hike may be in store for US subscribers as well. Sure enough, that’s just what Amazon announced last Thursday. “Even as fuel and transportation costs have increased, the price of Prime has remained the same for nine years,” read the company’s email to customers explaining the $20 increase…

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New Video Subscription Platform Will Feature Niche Channels Based on Personalities

Entertainment and Streaming, Industry Announcements, News / Katherine Noyes

By Katherine Noyes It seems safe to say that the subscription model has proven its merit for a wide variety of online content, but if there’s any area in which its success stands out in high relief, it’s video — just see the latest news from the Entertainment Retailers Association for shining evidence. Well, last week a brand-new video subscription platform was born. TAPP — short for “TV app” — is a new service that was announced…

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‘Booming’ Subscription Sales in the UK Boost Video and Music Streaming Revenues to £5.3B in 2013

Entertainment and Streaming, FInance, News / Katherine Noyes

By Katherine Noyes If there was any doubt remaining that the Internet has changed the face of home entertainment forever, the Entertainment Retailers Association on Wednesday published some tidy evidence. First off, the UK home entertainment market increased by 4% year on year to reach £5.3 billion in 2013, according to ERA figures, marking its first increase in five years. More to the point, however, is the fact that “booming” subscription sales by services like Netflix, LoveFilm…

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Cleeng Aims to Make Pay-Per-View Easy for Paid Content Sites

Entertainment and Streaming, News, Payment Processing, Technology / Katherine Noyes

By Katherine Noyes Streaming video on-demand is an increasingly common part of many subscription sites — for a recent example, just see Sony’s decision to add such functionality to its PlayStation gaming service. Pay-per-view events, however, are less frequently seen. Yet here’s some food for thought: Live pay-per-view content generates six times more revenue per user than on-demand video programming does. That’s according to Dutch Cleeng, which last week announced Cleeng Live, a new solution designed to…

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For $4.99 a Month, Rooster Delivers eBooks to Your Phone in Bite-Sized Pieces

Business Media and Publishing, Industry Announcements, News, Subscriber Acquisition, Subscription Apps / Katherine Noyes

By Katherine Noyes The flurry of launches continues fast and furious in the eBook subscription space. Last month we looked at Epic’s new service targeting kids, and just last week a fresh new contender caught our eye: Rooster. Working on the premise that a lack of time is why most people don’t read more, Rooster aims to deliver a curated selection of books in manageable increments to subscribers’ smartphones. Rooster describes its value proposition in terms of…

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Insight to drive subscription growth

Katherine Noyes