The book publishing industry is just as excited about apps as the music industry, but there are signs that even ‘popular’ apps in that category may not be cash cows. UK studio ustwo recently launched an app called Papercut, which gave short fiction a new spin by adding interactivity, animation and audio. It was hailed by the press and was promoted as iPad App Of The Week by Apple, yet in the three weeks since it was released, it has only sold 880 downloads and made £2,227 of revenue. “To be honest, we never thought this would sell many, it’s so experimental. But to die that quick was a surprise.” This is by no means a trend confined to book-apps: Music Ally has heard regular tales of expensively-developed music apps flopping commercially – although on the flipside, we’ve also heard praise from labels for less creatively ambitious apps that have made an impact on sales of music, tickets and merchandise.
Tools: platforms to help you reach new audiences
Tools: Kaiber
In the year or so since its launch, AI startup Kaiber has been making waves,…