Amie Street Raises $3.9 Million
Dynamic priced download leader Amie Street has raised an additional $3.9 million in operating funds according to an SEC filing. The new investment round was led by Deep Fork Capital according to paidContent. Amazon led the original round of investment in the company almost two years ago.
Amie Street sells downloads using dynamic pricing which encourages early music discovery. As a song becomes more popular, the price rises. But the company has thus far only attracted the catalog of one major label, Sony, and their tracks are sold using fairly rigid tiered pricing rather than the true fan driven model.
But if the major labels continue to restrict Aime Street's pricing, or worse avoid licensing to them altogether, its hard to see how the dynamic pricing concept could reach its potential.
Bruce, I always believed that Amie Street could make a great living catering to The Long Tail that the likes of Amazon & iTunes tend to avoid. As Chris Anderson theorized, there’s just as much money to be made in the tail as there is in the head.
I wish they didn’t have to “maximize revenue” through major label deals, but instead follow the craigslist’s model of finding that appropriate revenue mark. Then again, when you’re on a Series B round, you can probably say good bye to that thought.