Those pesky celebrity photographers are making a spectacle of themselves again and publishers are watching. Also, Google offers more info on its coming Web app store while Vevo launches a music video app.
Another reason to hate paparazzi
People Magazine is delaying its iPad app launch because the celebrity photo press has gotten in the way. No, they are not blocking the entryway for People’s offices or stalking the streets trying to catch People reporters at lunch. It’s as simple as this: the paparazzi want a cut of the pie.
Hey, if you do all the dirty work for making a magazine so popular (and earn the scorn of celebrities and the public, who still demand your product) you deserve a fair shake. According to the Hollywood Reporter, “more than a dozen of the photo agencies that supply celebrity snapshots from the paparazzi are banding together to withhold their prized product unless it can get additional compensation from People magazine.”
The story notes that this isn’t only a People problem. Other celebrity-photo obsessed rags who are developing iPad versions are “watching nervously from the sidelines. Whatever deal they strike could set the terms of trade for the industry going forward.”
People denies there is a delay, but the app was expected earlier this month. A mediation session is set for Thursday in New York. Who will take the pics?
Google’s new app store
Google (GOOG) is getting closer to introducing a pretty cool concept for the Internet: A store for Web apps. This is different than Apple’s (APPL) App Store for the iPhone; rather this is a store for buying apps that work on your computer.
The store has a lot of appeal for computer gamers, but there is also interest from publishers. According to TechCrunch, Google appears to be preparing for an October launch of its so-called Chrome Web Store. The store will reside on an updated version of the Chrome browser, an obvious ploy to increase market share of Google’s own browser. But, according to reports, once a Web app is downloaded, it will operate on any browser.
Will this approach work? On the computer, we do many things within a browser, including playing video games and reading content from magazines and newspapers. So why use a Web app? The experience for the user promises to be better, much like how mobile apps have re-imagined how we interact with content on our smartphones.
Also, Google appears to be offering very healthy developer incentives to create these Web apps: It is saying it will take a 5 percent processing fee for putting an app on its store. The rest of the revenue will go to the developers. Gaming site 1Up.com offers a detailed view of how the Chrome Web Store will work, including the pricing strategy. Google first announced it’s Chrome Web Store in May.
Vevo launches music app
If you love music videos, you’ll want to check out Vevo’s new app. The free app offers roughly 20,000 videos from more than 7,000 artists, while offering exclusive content as well as tapping into social features so users can share videos with their friends via Twitter or Facebook. Geo-location tools are embedded, too, so users can tell which videos are most popular based on location.
Vevo is a Hulu-like service for music videos. It is backed by major recording labels, including Sony Music Entertainment (SNE) and Universal Music Group, and several smaller, independent music labels.
