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Amazon DRM-Free Music Store Goes Beta
LowSNR writes "Amazon this morning moved their DRM-free music store into open beta. According to the release, 'Since all our digital music downloads are DRM-free, you can play them on anything that plays mp3s including PCs, Macs(tm), iPods(tm), Zunes(tm), Zens(tm), iPhones(tm), RAZRs(tm), and BlackBerrys. Plus, our Amazon MP3 Downloader application makes it easy to add your downloads to iTunes(tm) and Windows Media Player(tm), so you can sync up your devices or burn your music to CD hassle-free.' Not to mention Linux." Of course, without DRM few of the major labels play with them.
But this is hardly the first DRM-free music download service. I've used eMusic off and on for years. How does this compare and how does it improve on the other DRM-free services that already exist? In the past, the main complaint about such services was the lack of mainstream music from major labels. Won't this be the same for Amazon's offering?
"You call it a new way of thinking; I call it regression to ignorance!" -- Operation Ivy
256 kbps VBR
Of course, without DRM few of the major labels play with them.
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The reality is that 90% of the stuff out there isn't on BMG or one of the few big labels anymore. In any case, it blows a big hole in ITunes. No DRM, cheaper, and a pretty large catalog. I know of several smaller labels that are going to almost certainly stop selling on ITunes as a result.
All Itunes can do at this point is damage control. It's the old Apple proprietary mentality at work again. And Apple getting burnt again by the cheaper and more open alternatives.
Oh - the bitrate appears to be 256K. Another plus - it's actually fairly decent quality.
According to a response on the Washington Post blog post about this, the download manager is required for album downloads, although not for single tracks. And ... "In addition, the download manager only works on XP, Vista, and Mac OS X 10.4 (or higher)." Unfortunately, I can't get to the Amazon site to check right now.
Slightly disreputable, albeit gregarious
I had a quick look at how much music by Sibelius I can find, and it's over 200 albums, which, I think, is eccellent.
Nothing by the less-known composers like Wilhelm Friedemann Bach (the more talented son of J. S. Bach) but still, pretty satisfactory.
Sh*t - and just when I decided to save up some money for next summer.
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
EldavoJohn I agree with your comment regarding the fact that un-signed musicians are now able to advertise their content via Amazon.Com's Online Store however there are also many other vectors which are able to be used to promote un-signed artists, of which include Jamendo.Com; although the file format used is primarily an OGG file format, a format which multiple multimedia applications, of which include Microsoft Windows Media Player 11 and Apple iTunes are unable to process without the installation of an additional codec. Amazon.Com has become a serious consideration however it's a pity that that Online Store is only available to residents of the United States Of America, and, being a resident of the United Kingdom, I'm unable to use it. Until the Online Store is available in the United Kingdom, I will continue to perouse Jamendo.Com. http://www.jamendo.com/ - Jamendo.Com - Open Your Ears
Is Amazon watermarking or hashing these, so that when they show up on Torrent sites, they can prove wrongdoing?
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
Control. Apple obsesses over the "user experience" and wants control over everything from pricing to marketing to bundling to the choice of album art. This frightens the labels; if iTunes already does much of the labels' work for them, they may decide to cut out the middleman entirely. The labels have been afraid of becoming obsolete for years now, so they do their best to keep the retail market as fragmented and easy to control as possible; punishing whoever sells too much (or worse, tries to think for themselves) and throwing bones to the weakest. As long as the retailers are relatively weak and afraid of losing their market to the competition, the labels can maintain control.
The labels would probably dump online retailers and sell the music themselves, except that it would open up an antitrust can of worms. That, and it would also involve real work on their part...
How can I believe you when you tell me what I don't want to hear?
What I find odd, is that of the small sample I just checked on, there are lots of songs that Amazon has DRM-free that iTMS has, but not DRM-free. Lots of small labels seem to not have their catalogs DRM-free on iTunes...I wonder why that is?
-Ted
-=-=- Quantum physics - the dreams stuff are made of.