Playster

Last updated
Playster
Playster logo.svg
Type of business Private
Available in English, Spanish, German, French, Dutch, Italian, Portuguese, Finnish, Japanese, Norwegian, Swedish
Founded2014
Area servedWorldwide
CEOPhilip Keezer
Industry Streaming Media
Employees80
Website www.playster.com
Native client(s) on Android, iOS, Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows

Playster is a global subscription-based entertainment service, providing on-demand movies, television shows, music, video games, ebooks and audiobooks.

Film sequence of images that give the impression of movement

A film, also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, or photoplay, is a series of still images that, when shown on a screen, create the illusion of moving images. This optical illusion causes the audience to perceive continuous motion between separate objects viewed in rapid succession. The process of filmmaking is both an art and an industry. A film is created by photographing actual scenes with a motion-picture camera, by photographing drawings or miniature models using traditional animation techniques, by means of CGI and computer animation, or by a combination of some or all of these techniques, and other visual effects.

Music form of art using sound

Music is an art form and cultural activity whose medium is sound organized in time. General definitions of music include common elements such as pitch, rhythm, dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture. Different styles or types of music may emphasize, de-emphasize or omit some of these elements. Music is performed with a vast range of instruments and vocal techniques ranging from singing to rapping; there are solely instrumental pieces, solely vocal pieces and pieces that combine singing and instruments. The word derives from Greek μουσική . See glossary of musical terminology.

Contents

History

Playster was founded in Montreal with private equity in 2014.

Montreal City in Quebec, Canada

Montreal is the most populous municipality in the Canadian province of Quebec and the second-most populous municipality in Canada. Originally called Ville-Marie, or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple-peaked hill in the heart of the city. The city is centred on the Island of Montreal, which took its name from the same source as the city, and a few much smaller peripheral islands, the largest of which is Île Bizard. It has a distinct four-season continental climate with warm to hot summers and cold, snowy winters.

During its Beta phase, the company announced content partnerships with several major publishers and distributors, including HarperCollins, [1] Simon & Schuster, [2] Harlequin, [3] Paramount Pictures, Cinedigm and Gameloft. In March 2015, Playster became a member of the Los Angeles-based Digital Entertainment Group. [4]

HarperCollins Publishers L.L.C. is one of the world's largest publishing companies and is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Hachette, Macmillan, Penguin Random House, and Simon & Schuster. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News Corp. The name is a combination of several publishing firm names: Harper & Row, an American publishing company acquired in 1987, together with UK publishing company William Collins, Sons, acquired in 1990.

Simon & Schuster large English-language publisher

Simon & Schuster, Inc., a subsidiary of CBS Corporation, is an American publishing company founded in New York City in 1924 by Richard Simon and Max Schuster. As of 2016, Simon & Schuster was publishing 2,000 titles annually under 35 different imprints.

Harlequin Enterprises Limited is a Toronto-based company that publishes series romance and women's fiction. Harlequin was owned by the Torstar Corporation, the largest newspaper publisher in Canada, from 1981 to 2014. It was then purchased by News Corp and is now a division of HarperCollins.

In June 2015, Playster announced it had partnered with digital audio distributor Findaway in order to add audiobooks to its collection. [5] The company later claimed that it had been driven to make the addition having seen competing services such as Scribd and Audible introduce restrictions to their ebooks and audiobook catalogs. [6]

Scribd is a digital library, e-book and audiobook subscription service that includes one million titles. Scribd hosts 60 million documents on its open publishing platform.

At its launch in December 2015, Playster was giving subscribers access to more than 250,000 books, [7] 50,000 audiobooks and 15 million songs. [8]

According to Forbes , the company also opened a new office in New York at the end of 2015. [9]

<i>Forbes</i> American business magazine

Forbes is an American business magazine. Published bi-weekly, it features original articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. Forbes also reports on related subjects such as technology, communications, science, politics, and law. Its headquarters is located in Jersey City, New Jersey. Primary competitors in the national business magazine category include Fortune and Bloomberg Businessweek. The magazine is well known for its lists and rankings, including of the richest Americans, of the world's top companies, and The World's Billionaires. The motto of Forbes magazine is "The Capitalist Tool". Its chair and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes, and its CEO is Mike Federle. It was sold to a Hong Kong-based investment group, Integrated Whale Media Investments.

New York City Largest city in the United States

The City of New York, usually called either New York City (NYC) or simply New York (NY), is the most populous city in the United States. With an estimated 2017 population of 8,622,698 distributed over a land area of about 302.6 square miles (784 km2), New York is also the most densely populated major city in the United States. Located at the southern tip of the state of New York, the city is the center of the New York metropolitan area, the largest metropolitan area in the world by urban landmass and one of the world's most populous megacities, with an estimated 20,320,876 people in its 2017 Metropolitan Statistical Area and 23,876,155 residents in its Combined Statistical Area. A global power city, New York City has been described as the cultural, financial, and media capital of the world, and exerts a significant impact upon commerce, entertainment, research, technology, education, politics, tourism, art, fashion, and sports. The city's fast pace has inspired the term New York minute. Home to the headquarters of the United Nations, New York is an important center for international diplomacy.

In April 2016, Playster expanded its audiobook library to include the Big Five publishers. As reported by Adweek, "the platform now carries audiobooks from: Simon & Schuster, Macmillan, HarperCollins UK, Recorded Books, Tantor, and Highbridge. HarperCollins US titles are already in the library." [10]

In May 2016, Playster announced its partnership with StreetLib, the Italian-based independent multi-language publishing distributor. In addition to the announcement, Playster also launched its affiliate program, allowing authors and publishers to further promote the content they have featured on Playster. [11]

Playster announced partnerships with Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group and The Orchard in September 2016, bringing its streaming music collection up to par with other industry leaders in 15 countries. [12]

In December 2017, Playster announced to customers that it would be doubling the price of its audiobook membership to $29.95 or allowing users to access under half of its library for their current price of $14.95.

Concept

The subscription model used by Playster differs from other on-demand services in that multiple types of media are brought together under a single subscription. Business and publishing magazines have suggested that Playster's all-inclusive offering is an attempt to "revive" [13] the digital subscription model which is considered to be struggling, particularly in the field of ebooks. [14]

Playster's recommendations technology uses a combination of metadata and user behavior insights in order to recommend similar titles to users across different media types. For example, upon watching a movie the user could be recommended a related book or video game. [15]

Playster can be used in any web browser on a desktop or laptop computer, as well as Android and iOS devices. [16]

References

  1. ↑ "HarperCollins Inks Content Deal with Playster", Publishers Weekly , 25 March 2015. Retrieved on 3 April 2015.
  2. ↑ "Simon & Schuster Puts Ebooks on Playster's Subscription Platform | Digital Book World". www.digitalbookworld.com. Retrieved 2015-09-01.
  3. ↑ "Playster Adds Harlequin, Simon & Schuster Titles to Its Subscription Platform", The Digital Reader , 16 April 2015. Retrieved on 15 December 2015.
  4. ↑ "DEG Adds 12 New Member Companies", Home Media Magazine , 10 March 2015. Retrieved on 3 April 2015.
  5. ↑ "Playster, still in beta, signs up audiobook company Findaway for media subscription service", Publishers Weekly , 24 June 2015. Retrieved on 6 January 2016.
  6. ↑ "Global Audiobook Trends and Statistics for 2016", Good E Reader , December 18, 2015. Retrieved on 6 January 2016.
  7. ↑ "Playster All-Media Subscription Service Debuts in U.S.", Publishers Weekly , 10 December 2015. Retrieved on 15 December 2015.
  8. ↑ "New subscription service Playster launches globally", Stream Daily , 10 December 2015. Retrieved on 15 December 2015.
  9. ↑ Olenski, Steve (2015-12-21). "The Best Way To Work Different Media Types Into Storytelling: A Look At Playster". Forbes. Retrieved 2016-01-06.
  10. ↑ "Playster Subscription Service Expands Audiobook Library". www.adweek.com. Retrieved 2016-04-11.
  11. ↑ "Playster Partners with StreetLib and Launches Affiliate Program | Digital Book World". www.digitalbookworld.com. Retrieved 2016-05-10.
  12. ↑ "Playster Signs Deals With Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group & The Orchard, Debuts New Music Streaming Platform". The National Post. Retrieved 2016-09-22.
  13. ↑ "Can Playster Revive Ebook Subscription?", BookBusiness , 16 December 2015. Retrieved on 6 January 2016.
  14. ↑ "Why the Subscription Model for Ebooks Doesn't Work (at Least Not Yet)", Entrepreneur , 26 June 2015. Retrieved on 6 January 2016.
  15. ↑ "The All-in-One Subscription Model", Digital Book World , 14 December 2015. Retrieved on 6 January 2016.
  16. ↑ "Why Playster is Taking an All-In-One Approach to its Global Launch", TheVideoInk , 10 December 2015. Retrieved on 6 January 2015.
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