Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Review of Amazon's DRM-Less Music Download Store

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the gosh-you-mean-if-i-buy-it-i-can-keep-it dept.

fdmendez writes to tell us that he had a chance to check out Amazon's DRM-less music download store that was recently released as a beta trial. "Amazon one-ups the iTunes store in every way except for popularity. Never once did I find an album to be more expensive on the Amazon store in comparison to the iTunes store. The download experience was pleasant, and the lack of DRM truly makes it YOUR music. I don't know of any other download service that could top the Amazon MP3 store."

11 of 437 comments (clear)

  1. I do... by pla · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I don't know of any other download service that could top the Amazon MP3 store.

    AllOfMP3.

    1. Re:I do... by feed_me_cereal · · Score: 4, Insightful

      what's the point of paying for mp3's you wont legally own? You might as well just pirate them for free.

      --
      "Question with boldness even the existence of a god." - Thomas Jefferson
    2. Re:I do... by Goldberg's+Pants · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Not only that, I find it endlessly amusing people see buying a digital replica of a song a good deal, especially when you work out the prices. I worked it out yesterday. The album I was looking at was a mere dollar cheaper in MP3 format. So that extra dollar gets you a physical disk you can make your own MP3's from, or if you want lossless, quality sound, FLAC format, (not an option when all you have is an MP3) all the packaging etc...

      It's like settling for a JPG of the Mona Lisa.

    3. Re:I do... by ConanG · · Score: 5, Insightful

      What if you only want a single song from that album? If you buy the disk, it's NOT cheaper than buying the one song.

      It's not like settling for a jpg of the Mona Lisa. It's like buying just the Mona Lisa jpg instead of a collection of artwork that includes the Mona Lisa. Maybe the rest of that artwork is crap.

      Back to the album...maybe you don't want to go through the trouble of converting it yourself. Maybe you don't want to mess with CDs at all. There are plenty of reasons why it's a better choice to buy a single off an album rather than the entire album.

    4. Re:I do... by Dixie_Flatline · · Score: 4, Insightful

      NO. STOP IT.

      It's legal to download music because it's legal, not because of the blank media levy. Whether or not the industry is bilking you of that money, you have that right. It's not illegal. The media levy doesn't make it any more or less legal, though it may assuage some of the guilt people feel.

      If you put a levy on bullets to ease the pain and suffering of families that are broken apart by gun violence, it doesn't make shooting people legal. It's an illegal activity no matter what.

      The levy is a smoke screen so that we don't notice if they try and legislate our IP rights away. It's a random and immoral money grab. It presupposes guilt when you buy media for any purpose, even if the media has non-infringing purposes. We should all hate the levy.

  2. Competition is good. by mattgreen · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I hope this service takes off, as competition between iTunes and other services only means less DRM, higher quality songs, and better selection for all of us. Amazon just needs to land some deals with record labels...

  3. Re:Obligitory by p0tat03 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You mean the service where everybody leeches, resulting in complete lack of bandwidth available to downloaders unless you're in an exclusive, ratio-metered club?

    Or the one that really only works for popular albums, as anything old or otherwise unpopular and non-mainstream will have no seeders?

    Even accounting for the $0 price tag, Bittorrent has a LONG way to go to rival ANY paid music store.

  4. Re:Obligitory by Reason58 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Why was the parent modded funny? If anything is should be modded sad but true. Pirated music is typically of better quality (bitrate, encoder, etc) than any "legal" music store on earth.

  5. AAC "quality" irrelevant ... by AHumbleOpinion · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Amazon trumps iTunes on DRM-free volume, but iTunes trumps Amazon by selling 256kbps AAC, as opposed to the 256kbps MP3 that Amazon sells.

    Isn't that 256kb AAC the optional higher priced version?

    More importantly the improved "quality" of 256 kb AAC over 256kb MP3 is largely hypothetical, few if any could tell the difference. However even if we accept marginal quality and size improvements these are overwhelmingly outweighed by the universal nature of MP3 files. Every digital player supports MP3. Portables, cars, home stereos, etc. There is no vendor lock.

  6. Re:I tried it out yesterday by vux984 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    They are struggling to handle users that can't master the concept of a .zip file.

  7. Time = Money by msimm · · Score: 4, Insightful

    While I agree (mostly), those lines of thinking side-step things like convenience (I download it when I like, from the comfort of my home, probably while doing other things) and format (I use mp3's exclusively, so buying 'hard' media simply adds an additional step between me and the music).

    So while I agree that you end up paying more for less (no album cover, no liner notes, no physical media) it comes close to being a wash (not quite) with the immediacy and the convenience.

    --
    Quack, quack.