Oh thank God there’s DRM - for a moment I was afraid they were condoning piracy!
That’s the way Prime Audio works now. I can download to Android so that I can listen even without an internet connection, but a desktop or laptop can only stream. I can’t say it’s been an inconvenience as my desktop has an always on internet connection. I don’t remember what the audio download format is. I looked into it once. It’s not MP3 and I think it has some DRM on it other than just being a strange format.
I actually don’t mind DRM when I’m renting something, especially if that’s what it takes to get me cheap streamed, high quality media. I’m not doing anything with it but watch it once.
It’s when I buy something it’s an issue.
And they do sell DRM-free when possible to license (audio.)
I celebrate it as one step closer to my finally being able to buy movies digitally and have the same rights as a DVD or BluRay. If Baby Steps are needed to get DRM-Free video from non-indie producers, then so be it.
Just about given up on both Netflix and Amazon Prime. Streaming content is pure shite - consists of straight-to-video and crap so bad that nobody bothered watching it the first time it came thru theaters; TV series and Reality shows that I have absolutely no interest in and a very small smattering of good movies that I’ve already seen half a dozen times.
I like the idea of downloading content for plane rides but there’s simply nothing there that I have any desire to watch.
Amazon & Netflix can’t get/afford many good movies’ streaming rights.
First sale doctrine doesn’t apply, I guess, so they can’t just buy copies and loan them out like Netflix can with DVDs. Hence the focus on original TV series (for various values of original).
Aside; has that actually been tested? Could you buy a DVD, then sell a streaming of it as long as you could prove that there weren’t more streamers than you owned copies? (sounds a bit like what Aereo tried and failed to do)
I’m rather enjoying HBO’s back catalog. Never saw them the first time, so yeah. Sopranos is good. Six Feet Under is good.
(And then there’s Archer.)
Performance rights are going to be even more expensive than streaming rights.
Netflix is actually coming with some original material that’s worth watching on its own, though – obviously. most famously the US version of “House of Cards”, but things like “Bojack Horseman” (which sounds like a one-joke concept but is surprisingly moving in addition to funny) as well. Amazon is also trying original series, but not to the same success of yet.
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