Amazon’s newest streaming service to take on YouTube

Another challenger has entered the ring, in this case, a juggernaut. Amazon.com launched Amazon Video Direct today which, will go head to head against YouTube.

Amazon Video Direct will allow users to upload their own content and earn royalties from them. Content creators will no doubt be eager to branch out to this new service. They are allowing all content creators to make their videos available for sale, rent, free (via ads) or as a subscription – much like the $10/month YouTube Red service.

At the moment, the service is only available in the United States, Germany, UK, Austria, and Japan.

In case you’re wondering what their stance is on copyright, here’s the official word from their FAQ.

Illegal and Infringing Content
We take violations of laws and proprietary rights very seriously. It is your responsibility to ensure that your content doesn’t violate applicable laws or copyright, trademark, privacy, publicity, or other rights (including with respect to components of your content such as the background music or items displayed within your content). Just because content is freely available does not mean you are free to copy and sell it.

Examples include:

  • Content that you did not create and do not have a license to distribute.
  • Content that contains trademarks or music that you have not obtained the rights to use.