Amazon Plans Music Service To Rival iPod

theodp writes "The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Amazon is in advanced talks with the four global music companies about a digital-music service that could be launched as soon as this summer. It would feature Amazon-branded portable music players, designed and built for the retailer, and a subscription service that would deeply discount and preload those devices with songs."

Comments

Will they be able to compete?

[VJ42]

With Apple having such dominance of the market, will they be able to compete? Afterall, even now every commonplace mp3 player is oten referred to as an iPod, so won't people just think of this as an "Amazon iPod"? Unless they have a few tricks up their sleeve, some people will take this as a cheap copy and want "the real thing (tm)"

Re:Will they be able to compete?

[molarmass192]

People associate Apple with cool, edgy, and young. Meanhile, Microsoft is only geek cool, not nerd cool, and certainly not cool to the general population. People view Microsoft through the cheap, stale,retrictive, crap software they have to deal with at the office. Apple provides an escape from that. It's those flashy computers that you only see in cool Apple stores, not with a $300 rebate coupon at BestBuy. An iPod is a status symbol and the fact that it doesn't play WMA makes it that much cooler to nerds, I doubt the general pop gives a hoot about that lack. iRiver, while making better and even more expensive players, simply does not have the cachet of an iPod in a "that guy couldn't even afford an iPod ... what a loser" sense. It plays into the "low end luxury snob" trend that America is so deeply into these days with other non-necessities like Starbucks and high end restaurants.

The Coolness Factor...

[__aaclcg7560]

I like buying books and DVDs from Amazon. But there's no coolness factor associated with having a music player from a warehouse operation. The iPod, on the other hand, is a cultural icon that everyone must have..

Partnership

[Billosaur]

Among the manufacturers Amazon has mentioned as likely partners for a subsidized hardware offering is Samsung Electronics Co., whose flair for stylish design is raising hopes among music executives that the initiative could create a strong alternative to iPod. A representative at Samsung's headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, couldn't be reached for comment.

Samsung makes excellent products. I own a Samsung laser printer and microwave, and used to have one of their cell phones till my wife got me a Motorola upgrade for Christams two years ago. Their products are pretty reliable and robust, and if thay can create a decent MP3 player for Amazon, it should give the iPod a run for its money, though I suspect Apple's lead will shrink but never disappear unless they make some crucial marketing mistake.

iPod and iTunes

[acaben]

An iPod is a one of several small portable units used to listen to digitial music on. It is not a service. The iTunes Music Store is an online venue where you can purchase music. It might be considered by some to be a service, and is what Amazon is actually competing with. And even then, it's not really competition. Amazon is going to offer a subscription service. iTMS allows you to buy individual songs and albums and own them for perpetuity, as long as you agree to their crappy DRM.

ipod killer huh?

[minus_273]

ipod killer huh? how many times have we heard that recently. It is interesting though that amazon is now in the hardware business. Oh wait, the article title "Plans Music Service To Rival iPod" is wrong.

Oh crap. they are getting into the hardware business.. and the article title is from the WSJ not slashdot. The summary says nothing about that though. i wonder how many people who didnt RTFA are going to post something like the paragraph above. :-p

possible name...

[solidtransient]

call it iMazon... no wait...

Changing technology fields.

[pubjames]

It's just struck me that an interesting trend is occuring. During the 90's, the company that owned the software was the winner, in other words, Microsoft became so dominant in the PC industry because they dominated the OS space, the hardware just became a commodity. They (and pretty much everyone else) though the same thing would happen in the mobile and 'living room' spaces. But it's not - the hardware is becoming more important - Microsoft realise that they only way they are getting into people's living rooms is coming out with their own hardware (the X-Box). Similarly in the mobile space, it's the ones that control the hardware that are going to win - so to compete in the digital content market Amazon is having to make its own version of the iPod, and Microsoft is also considering it. So we have software companies and online shops turning into electronics manufacturers.

New headline...

[jav1231]

"Amazon looking to dump tons of cash on HUGE tax write-off!"

Ah well...hope springs eternal for marketing types

[Sunburnt]

What, exactly, is Amazon going to be banking on by branding a line of music players? Their history for making functional, attractive gadgets? Hmm...no, that's Apple. Is the consumer expected to look at an Amazon-branded MP3 player they've never seen before and think, "Ah, Amazon! They do such a good job shipping gifts on or around Christmas, I'll bet their digital music service rocks?"

This has all the trappings of another expensive mistake.

Captured HW and subscription based content =...

[Overzeetop]

DRM. And I mean ugly, tight, restictive, ball-in-a-vice DRM.

There was no mention of compatibility with iPod, or any other player, that I read. This sounds more like an Audible-like service, but for music. Near total lock in to the Amazon format, without any portability.

what a relief for Apple...

[museumpeace]

it puts the lie to claims, now greenlighted to go to trial, that Apple Ipod/Itunes is a monopoly. Well, of course Amazon will seek to make the music files it sells iPod compatible. Right?

What Amazon has ...

[binaryDigit]

What Amazon has that others don't that may allow them to compete effectively against the iPod/iTMS:

- An established, well trafficed website. People already go to Amazon to shop for music and videos, allowing them to immediately download instead of purchasing a cd/dvd is an obvious evolutionary step. They don't need to try to drive people to use their service, people already do.

- Purchase hardware directly from them. If they do indeed sell a hardware player as well, then this makes it even easier for the consumer. "Hey, I'm thinking of buying a mp3 player, I'll go over to Amazon and check them out". And lo and behold, you can purchase the Amazon player and get whatever music you order pre-loaded onto the sucker in one fell swoop. Even Apple doesn't offer this level of service.

- Amazon already has relationships with the music industry and they are "established" enough to be a credible (in the eyes of the industry) alternative. Remember, Jobs and the music industry don't exactly see eye-2-eye on issues like pricing. I bet the music industry execs are chomping at the bit to play with someone who will bow more to their desires in order to establish a foothold.

Not to say that this Amazon player is a shoo-in, but I think it's probably the most credible challenge to the Apple "monopoly" that has come around in a while. It will indeed be interesting to see if they can gain some measure of success vs the iPod/iTMS steamroller, or if they just end up sucking up all the after rans, in effect winnowing the market to two players.

What Amazon *should* do here.

[Shag]

Dear Mr. Bezos (can I call you Jeff?),

I think the idea of selling music players preloaded with music is really, really great. Totally. But I don't think you need to cannibalize your existing business to do it.

Take a look at your company's "Top Sellers" page for electronics.

Note that six of the top ten are iPods. (The others are lower-price, and probably lower-profit, items.)

(You might also note that seven of the top ten items on your company's "Top Sellers" page for computers happen to be Apple products. See a trend?)

You, of all people, know that people want iPods. And you're more than happy to sell them to them. Lots and lots and lots of them.

Soooo... I hope you're also talking to Apple about this idea. Yes, their DRM doesn't really work well with the idea of a new portable device showing up with music on it that's not on the user's computer... but then, does anyone's?

But if you asked, I bet they'd be willing to help you set up some sweet bundles of iPods and high-ticket iTunes Music Store cards, with a nice margin built in for you. After all, you move a lot of kit for them.

And maybe Steve and Bono would even let you be on stage with them sometime. Wouldn't that be neat?

Duh... it'll be...

[bennomatic]

aTunes!

And the hardware will be called the aPod!

An easy way to hook this in well...

[Churla]

Your music "service" is for an unlimited number of downloads for a flat fee per month. (As others are doing)
Your music doesn't "expire" if they cancel account. (That's just a crappy thing to do, might as well go the iPod route then.)

And the kicker to hook people in.. You go to Amazon to shop for a CD, for an extra $1 when you buy it you can download all the songs from it into your device right then so you can listen while the CD is being shipped. This could be with or without subscription. (Make it free if you have a subscription so that someone buying 5-10 CD's at amazon might be better off getting a months subscription which hooks them on your service!)

How?

[SuperKendall]

And this is different to iPod/iTunes, how?

I can burn a CD from protected AAC files today, as many times as I like. Think you'll be able to do that with the Amazon songs?

How many computers will the Amazon songs work with (this is more likley to match ITMS, but it's a good question).

Can I go to Bolivia for a month and keep playing my music? Not if Amazon is a subscription model, it will have to phone home with regularity to make sure I own what I am playing. Apple doesn't collect stattistics on what you are playing, but Amazon could (admittedly with a low sampling interval).

Basically, do you like owning or renting? That's the difference.

The only way this can work.

[Radak]

There is one way I can see an Amazon-branded player/service work, and that is for Amazon to pair digital downloads with physical purchases, at least optionally.

We are all impatient when we buy a new CD. We want to hear the music right now. For a lot of people, this means stealing a copy of the music to hear in the interim. Unfortunately for the industry, for a lot more, it means stealing the music outright and never paying for it.

So what if Amazon let me buy a CD on their site and then immediately download all the tracks to my Amazon-branded player, and then a few days later, the physical disc arrived in the mail for me to add to my collection, at which point I could erase the digital copy from my player, or just leave it there and continue to listen to that copy, secure in the knowledge that I have a physical copy, with artwork, securely stored at home?

The ability to buy online and listen instantly *coupled* with the ability to own a physical CD copy of something is the one thing every digital download service thusfar has failed to deliver and is the one reason I don't use any of them. I have an iPod, but I've never bought a single track from iTMS. I still buy CDs and rip them to mp3 to fill my iPod, and yes, sometimes I P2P a copy of something I've just bought, because I want to hear it without waiting for it to arrive.

If Amazon provided this kind of service, paired with a high quality, functional Amazon-branded player, I would seriously consider dumping my iPod for their player. I don't see any other program being successful for them.