The “Break it Down” Blog

It was announced yesterday that YouTube (Google) is partnering with both Amazon and Apple to begin selling video games and music respectively.

The idea is that content on YouTube identified as belonging to a certain video game or song would be associated with what amounts to a “Buy it Now” button that would take you over to the Amazon or Apple page to purchase said media immediately. I’m sure there is some Google Checkout tie-in in here somewhere as well.

This is surely the beginning of what will become complete online media dominence by a few companies in the near future.

The barrier to entry for online distribution has always been building out the infrastructure capable of doing those things reliably. Even if a company, like Warner Bros, wanted to get into online distribution, the hurdle was always that they didn’t have the experience, infrastructure, consumer-trust or name recognition in the game that other online companies have had.

Google, Amazon and Apple certainly do.

It will be interesting to see how this fragile alliance unfolds. If things go well and the profit-sharing works out between the companies, we might see a future where the movie studios and record labels bend over backwards to get into the good graces of Gamapple (I just made that up) to get their content into those networks for consumers to consume.

Of course if the alliance falls apart due to greed (that always seems to be the issue) then it’s back to square 1 where it’s every-man-for-himself, with every major studio trying their own “next best thing”.

Then again, sometimes the networks will nail the nail right on the head and create the next best thing… but mostly not.