Slashdot Mirror
Amazon MP3 Vs. iTunes Music Store
Ali writes "As discussed here recently, amazon.com has launched a public beta of Amazon MP3, a digital music store that provides DRM-free downloads of over 2 million songs from 180,000 artists and 20,000 labels. In comparison, Apple says the iTunes Store now contains over 6 million songs. Here is a head-to-head comparison."
I still like getting the actual CDs. Better quality, fewer restrictions, less chance of me losing it, etc. With Prime I get them in a couple days, which is fast enough for me, then I convert them to FLAC for later conversion to any other format I desire.
"Better to be vulgar than non-existent" -Bev Henson
I prefer Amazon because I will not touch DRMed music, tied to a platform even with a 10 foot pole!
I used to say "If I could purchase a track for a buck i'd buy more music, because then I wouldn't have to buy 10 or so other crappy songs with it on an album" Then the itunes store came around -- then i realized i couldn't easily transfer songs to my non-apple mp3 player
i think now i WILL actually buy some music in digital form --- kudos to amazon
And then there was E
It would be really useful if I could click on "Song Title", "Artist", and "Album" to sort according to them. If I search for "Oasis", there's no easy to way to separate the albums titled that from the artist.
Might be interesting to compare itunes vs amazon vs imeem vs spiralfrog - imeem.com and spirafrog are both free music services supported by advertising. imeem is a little like youtube but it has become more music orientated and allows users to listen to CD quality music on demand via a flash based player, they've signed sony,bmg and warner brothers on top of the usual mess of indie labels and whatever the users have uploaded. Spiralfrog allows downloads and has universal as their biggest label, but the downloads are DRM encapsulated windows media files which can be copied to mp3 players but not burned to CD, spiralfrog requires a special Active-X plugin so its windows + IE only. I wonder whether the average user will tolerate the restrictions in exchange for being free, or if they'll just stick with p2p downloads instead?
Up for it.
I sincerely hope that this store kicks the trash out iTunes. One because I know so many people that got screwed by the iTunes they purchased trying to be good little boys and girls. And Two, cause iTunes is a craptacular interface to add and take songs away from devices. When I had an iPod I used Winamp to manage the music cause it could take songs off as well as put them on, it kinda sucked cause of the ID3 tag mess ups and both Winamp and iTunes adding and taking away from the songs title, artist etc etc. Apple makes some wicked awesome hardware, I just wish they would leave the software up to some one else....
To see a few of my Android apps goto: www.hartwired.com
I'd happily deal with the slightly less streamlined process on Amazon to legally download DRM free music. That and slightly lower prices should drive me completely from iTunes.
We figured out a long time ago that it's easier to elect seven judges than to elect 132 legislators.
The fact that it's called "Amazon MP3" and then to tag it "not flac" and "not lossless" seems rather redundant don't you think? Obviously mp3 is not flac, and everyone already knows mp3 is a lossy format.
sigs... don't talk to me about sigs....
Even without DRM (itunes premium?) using apple's proprietary data format, you're taking a risk since the data format hasn't been made publicly available. Re-processing those files as MP3 (or doing the 'burn to cd and reimport to get around apple's DRM' trick) is non-optimal since you're using two compressed data formats which are lossy in different ways.
iTunes Plus is DRM free. However, it's unknown how many titles actually are offering using it (only EMI still and not all those titles) and the price is a little higher. The quality of a 256k AAC encode vs. a 256k MP# Amazon encode may be somewhat different, but at those bitrates it's probably basically indistinguishable.
Sometimes though buying it from the iTunes store is simply more convenient... but I sure wish they'd hurry and expand iTunes Plus.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
iTunes plus uses a standard (DRM free AAC) that is just as well documented and supported as MP3. For goodness sake, the Zune can play iTunes Plus music! And so can snything else that supports AAC, which is most new players. I don't think there's a Linux player around that could not handle them.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
The problem with that, and maybe with the whole amazon gig is the profit margin issue. My impression, perhaps I'm wrong, was that apple was pocketing less than a dime a song for itunes music store. I suppose that varies a lot with the rate songs are sold since there are many fixed costs. If that dime a song margin is accurate then amazon must be running on fumes since they are underselling Apple. Presumably this is not too server lite either since I'm guessing the songs are watermarked with your ID and then MP3 compressed. So assuming amazon is not getting a better deal than apple it's hard to see how these low rates will last. Recall the record companies wanted apple to 1) share Ipod revenues with them and 2) raise prices on new releases. Given that I'd say either the record comapnies have decided to sell music for less (ha ha ha) or these are teaser rates. Does anyone think Amazon is giving them a cut of music player sales.... So it makes not sense for the record companies to move away from apple to accept even less (unless they were incredibly freakin' scared). So getting back to the CD shipping. That would mean even less profit perhaps or perhaps they could charge $1 for the instant album download option.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
Song Artist Amazon ITMS
Genius of Love Tom Tom Club No Yes
I got a login/password pop-up when I tried to read the head-to-head comparison. Here's the text from a mirror in the event anyone else sees the same.
***
Entertainment | 25 Sep 2007 | Recommend?
Amazon MP3 Takes on the iTunes Store
by Adam C. Engst
Amazon.com has launched a public beta of Amazon MP3, a digital music store that provides DRM-free downloads of over 2 million songs from 180,000 artists and 20,000 labels. In comparison, Apple says the iTunes Store now contains over 6 million songs.
According to Amazon's press release, most of Amazon MP3's songs are priced between $0.89 and $0.99, with more than 1 million songs in the current catalog available at $0.89, a full $0.40 less than Apple's iTunes Plus songs. Most albums in Amazon MP3 are priced between $5.99 and $9.99, again a bit cheaper than albums in the iTunes Store, which generally check in at $9.99.
All songs in Amazon MP3 are encoded at 256 Kbps, which is comparable to iTunes Plus songs, although in theory, the iTunes Plus AAC format could provide better quality than the MP3 format used by Amazon. Because Amazon is using MP3 and avoiding DRM entirely, songs purchased from Amazon MP3 are playable on any device, including the iPhone and iPods, along with Macs, PCs, and music players from other manufacturers.
Individual tracks can be purchased directly from a Web page, but to buy an album, you must first download and install the Amazon MP3 Downloader, available for both Mac OS X and Windows (a 615K download for the Mac version).
In my testing, the Amazon MP3 Downloader worked acceptably, but it was a distinctly clumsier experience than purchasing from iTunes. Clicking a Buy button on the Amazon Web site downloaded a document to my Desktop. I believe the Amazon MP3 Downloader was supposed to open it and download the actual song, but I had to double-click the file manually, likely because Amazon wasn't expecting that I'd be using a browser other than Safari (I generally rely on OmniWeb). Once opened in Amazon MP3 Downloader, the song was downloaded to an Amazon MP3 folder in the Music folder and then sent over to iTunes, which, at least on my machine, means that it was duplicated, since I keep my iTunes Music folder on a server for shared usage.
Songs I purchased were encoded at between 208 Kbps and 256 Kbps using variable bit-rate (VBR) encoding, and the free sample song was encoded at 280 Kbps VBR. Sound quality was certainly fine to my ears, though I'm no audio connoisseur. The metadata was complete and album artwork was either included or picked up automatically by iTunes.
Not Too Shabby -- Amazon MP3 is the first online music store that hasn't left me cold. Its advantages are very real:
* No DRM. No consumer likes DRM, and although Apple hasn't yet released any statistics on how the DRM-free tracks from EMI have sold in comparison with the DRM-encumbered versions of the same tracks, Amazon has done the right thing by eliminating it across the board. Hopefully Amazon's move will give Apple some leverage with the music labels to make more DRM-free tracks available.
* iPod compatibility. Thanks to the lack of DRM, and in particular, Windows-specific DRM, songs purchased from Amazon MP3 will play on an iPod, something that has never been true for a mainstream online music retailer (other than Apple) before.
* Low prices. I don't have a sense for how price-conscious the online music market really is, but with many tracks priced below even the cost of Apple's DRM-encumbered tracks, and albums priced even lower, I could see budget-driven consumers or those who buy a lot of music preferring to purchase from Amazon MP3 over the iTunes Store.
* 1-Click shopping. People do not like creating new accounts for shopping, but there's no question that some people shop from Amazon over other venues purely because it's such a known quantity after years of easy ordering. Ordering
But if you're like the vast majority of Ipod owners, you'll continue ripping CDs and loading MP3s from your "library" as you've been doing all along. On the occasions when you need to own one particular tune right now, it doesn't matter if it's 69 cents or 1.29; what matters is that it's in the catalog of the store you're shopping at. That's never easy to tell with Amazon; they've got a bad habit of putting EVERYTHING in their catalog and taking orders for it - regardless of whether they've actually got the item to sell or can even obtain it.
Personally, I gave up on Amazon after they left me on "backorder" status on a book order for a couple of months before I found out from other sources that the book was out of print. I finally got the book from Ebay for half of what Amazon wanted to sell it for - if they'd had any to sell.
Apple? Say what you will about them, but I've never been left feeling misused after dealing with them. What you get is what it says on the box; no "smoke and mirrors" like Amazon. But neither of them is getting any money from me this month (or next month either). I'll continue to buy CDs at deep discount and load those into Itunes.
There is one area where the author misses the underlying strategic implications of the recording industry's willingness to sell DRM-free songs through amazon.
" No DRM. No consumer likes DRM, and although Apple hasn't yet released any statistics on how the DRM-free tracks from EMI have sold in comparison with the DRM-encumbered versions of the same tracks, Amazon has done the right thing by eliminating it across the board. Hopefully Amazon's move will give Apple some leverage with the music labels to make more DRM-free tracks available."
He's got it backwards. This deal gives the record companies a strategic advantage in its pricing battle with Apple. Allowing Amazon to sell DRM-free songs but variably-priced would be best interpreted as the record companies giving Steve Jobs the finger. Only one of the major record companies has allowed Apple to sell DRM-free songs and then only at a premium price.
Of the battling parties, it is the record companies who have gained leverage with this move, not Apple. The message to Apple is clear: allow variable pricing and we'll let you sell DRM-free tracks. Keep insisting on fixed pricing and we'll only let you sell DRMed tracks.
However, they lock out Linux users. While I can apparently buy indivual songs, I can't buy an album without using their downloader which is Windows/OS X only. I don't feel like booting into OS X just to download some mp3s.
For now I'll stick to eMusic and DownloadPunk (albums are downloaded as a zip).
"The Federal Reserve is a fraudulent system."--Lew Rockwell
End The FED. -
- Proprietary downloader required for albums (Why, oh why? I refuse to install crap like this that serves no necessary purpose.)
- Downloading of singles without the proprietary downloader can take ages (20 minutes for a 5MB song) or fail completely
- No sorting options on many screens, just like the rest of Amazon. At least clicking on an artist gets you that artist's music, unlike clicking on an author when looking at books, which only gets you a text search of the author's name (still amazed at the lameness of that)
- No shopping cart. WTF? Each song must be purchased individually. It's amazing how crappy these music stores start out. The bar is so insanely low.
- No media library for re-downloading. Come on people, join the new millennium. Why not make it possible forever, and only limit the number of redownloads in a given time period if you are worried about bandwidth? Where did customer service go? Not to mention this would bring consumer eyes back again and again... why run away from this opportunity?
- Lousy track naming. Decent meta information but the files are named {track #} - {track name}.mp3. Track number is meaningless without the context of the album. Why not name them {artist} - {track name}.mp3 so the are comprehensible in a directory listing?
Tip: If you record the download URL, you'll find that you can actually use it multiple times. Great for when something goes wrong with the first attempt. For some reason, Amazon can't figure out how to serve these files worth a damn. Fortunately they didn't bother to actually enforce the "one download" policy. Not sure how long it hangs around.
So to you adventurous folks with 89 cents, does Amazon include cover art?
PS
I also, I have to say that it amazes me that people don't know 1.) that AAC is open and standard, not proprietary 2.) that the iTMS has been on the forefront of offering legal DRM free downloadable music (sold more than anyone else.) and 3.) that it's the music publishers, not Apple who insist on the DRM.
-- My apologies if the above facts contain any opinions, or vice versa! --
So how long do people think it is for Google to start a music downloading service? Lets me see...
a)Bandwidth , check
b)Storage capacity, check
c)Revenue stream, check ( subscription / adds )
d)Search, check
e)Marketing, check
f)...
h)Profit! (I'm sincerely sorry, but it didn't feel right to leave it out.)
Question is if they will write it themself or if they are waiting for somebody else to do the hard work so they can buy it.
I prefer Amazon because I will not touch DRMed music
Unfortunately, by choosing Amazon you'd support a company which has troubled the entire internet with their 1-click patent war.
I had no trouble untangling from eMusic when I needed to trim the monthly budget. I found plenty of worthwhile music on there, although it's far from complete - so I think it works for more of the "explorative" music shopper. The thing that bugged me was the "pressure" to use my credits each monthly cycle, rather than being able to splurge them when I had the time and inclination.
Don't get me wrong. My ears probably don't care, really, and I'd be transcoding to Ogg Vorbis as soon as I got it.
But I still don't want to be locked into a single lossy format forever, even if I was buying it in today's best codec.
This is one reason I plan to start buying and burning off FLACs from Magnatune in the near future. Their full-length mp3 samples are fine for previewing/freeloading, but if I'm going to actually pay money for the music, I'd like the freedom to change to tomorrow's super-high-compression/quality format when it comes out. (Plus, supporting indie artists on labels with cool business models is nifty too...)
I've read Grocklaw. BoycottNovell, you're no Grocklaw
"There are dozens of us!"
No, the labels aren't scared, they're pissed off that Apple has the ability (and the gall) to stand up to them and tell them what to do.
As such, I think you're missing an essential part of the strategy: The labels put MP3s on Amazon in an attempt to drive customers away from Apple, with the result that if enough people switch then Apple no longer has the clout to stand up to them. After that the next time the contracts are negotiated they raise the rates everywhere and require everyone to use whatever brand of DRM they see fit.
Goodbye DRM-free iTunes. Goodbye DRM-free MP3s.
As much as I like Amazon, I like Apple's stance on the subject more. I'm sticking with iTunes.
Any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so.
I have an infinity + 1 foot pole. And in my house, I touch pole.
You, sir, are absolutely right.
Still, Apple is by no means unseated from their dominant market position. The Record Labels could only lose, and lose they have: they have stiffed Apple *only* by offering mp3 downloads from Amazon. Wow, what a blow...
A real loss would be if Apple caved in and started selling tracks with variable pricing. On the other hand, what if Apple now said, "we will no longer sell DRMed tracks. Go give your DRM arguments to Amazon." As long as they continued to operate the iTunes store, Amazon would never have a full monopoly (there will always be a few people who buy through iTunes). Apple would be able to eliminate the DRM baggage on their music players, and in their contracts with the record labels. And the consumer would win, too.
Notice that you still have to use their special program to download full albums. That leaves out the (semi) vocal Linux and BSD crowds out in the cold.
They say DRM is bad for the consumer, but this is one point where it's actually working in the consumer's favor.
Apple controls the iTMS DRM. The iTMS DRM is the only DRM supported on the iPod. Having your music store work on an iPod is critical. Since working on iPods is critical to the success of any music store right now, there is only one option to sell digitally outside the iTMS and do that - no DRM. Apple's control has left the labels no choice. We would not be seeing this if iTMS DRM was opened up for licensing like everyone whines for them to do.
...and that's all there is to it.
Except, pinhead, that's not DRM. Besides, I though you Linux commies all used ugh vorbis anyway, and not the horrible, proprietary MP3.
No one reason, I reply stroking the Van Dyke beard that looks so rakish with a black turtleneck (it has fully grown back in since that regrettable incident with the calipers, thank you for asking).
For a full analysis of my shopping habits, perhaps it is better if I quote from my ten part, 3,400-word blog post on the subject, which can be found carefully archived at my site, DaringTurdball.com.
"When I see a new car ad on TV and just have to 'run out' and buy the music playing in the background, there are few things I like to put in order first. You might call them 'ducks,' and say I am getting them 'in a row'--but just make sure it's a digital row, and that the ducks are all downsampled audio recordings. Ha, ha--or should I say, Quack quack!"
"One, I don't want too high a bitrate. High bitrates are known to use up A.R.S.E. (Auditory Response Synchronization Energy), a finite resource found in the resonant bones that frame the auditory canal. In layman's terms, higher bitrates wear out ears faster. You only have so much A.R.S.E. Why splurge?"
"Second, I take the 'fidelity' in high fidelity seriously. That's why I want to lock down my music as securely as a 13th century feudal lord securing his wife's genitals before he rides off to the Crusades. Doing so requires strong DRM so that my musical 'honey pots' don't end up getting 'stirred' by any other portable music players. I like knowing my songs are safe and won't be getting roughly used by a Zune on the side."
"Third, like most Americans, I don't want to pay too little. Everyone knows there's a direct relationship between price and quality. I like knowing my song has received that extra special touch of attention, even if it's just someone leaving on a light for it at Apple. Who knows? Maybe while it was waiting to be downloaded, The Steve walked by and gave it the old 'thumbs up' or even a 'peace sign'!"
"Adequately priced low-bitrate songs belted down with high-quality DRM so that they won't fall out of my iPod: yes, it's what I call a musical 'match made in heaven'--thank you, iTMS!"
I tried to use Amazon's MP3 download store only to be stymied by the completely anemic search and sorting capabilities. Choose to search by "Song title" and type in a phrase. You get back all matches to song title, album title and artist. WTF? Worse, I could not find a way to sort the list by song title. Ex: Search for song title "Mary". The first 28 results don't have "Mary" in the song title!
Sorry, but iTunes is just an infinitely easier to use store than the Amazon web site; and have you SEEN the Wireless iTunes Music store??
iTMS is just so far ahead of Amazon in style and functionality that I don't see anyone on Windows or Mac abandoning iTMS in favor of Amazon.
Amazon is also mis-leading consumers. They claim $.89 downloads, but it only applies to the "top 100" songs, most other tracks are $.99_ or more_.
Sure the Amazon tracks are DRM free, but the Fairplay rights from iTunes Music store are something most consumers are never going to run up against... 5 computers, unlimited iPods, only 10 sequential playlist burns before you have to alter the playlist or start copying the burned disk directly. And there are certainly enough ways "around" Fairplay that anyone who would be affected; ie non windows/Mac OS users, could remove the DRM on a supported platform via emulation and migrate the music to another format/platform.
I get the sneaky suspicion that there is some back-room politics going on here between the record companies and Amazon and that it is all to benefit the record companies.
Article X: The powers not delegated... by the Constitution...are reserved...to the people
And of course right after paying out on the high profile class action law suite for price fixing related to that bait-and-switch.
Quack, quack.
There are some pluses - such as there being a downloader for linux (java based), the website being clean and simple to use, and the id3 tags being clean (artist, album, year, genre, BUT no cover).
Personally I think they should make a minor change to their business model. I pay $10 for 30 songs per month. Instead of limiting me to 30 songs, if I go over 30, immediately start another "month" (another 30 songs, another $10). That is, I can download as much as I like, and its about 33c each for each block of 30. With a min of $10 per month. If I commit to one of their higher plans, I can buy songs at a cheaper rate.
That would dramatically increase revenue as I am sure a lot of people like to buy albums, but keep hitting the 30 songs per month limit. They'd cycle "months" much more quickly. However it could reduce profit as people are less likely to fail to download their limit (Think: their best result is when I download nothing in a month).
Anyway, just my $0.02c worth.
Totally worthless.
That's a lovely stance there. Apparently, everybody who would like to play the songs on their portable music player that isn't an an iPod doesn't matter; they should just get with the program and buy one.
Or, if they absolutely have to not buy one (what are you people, Apple hat0rz!? BUY ONE!), they can just burn it to a CD and then re-encode! Give that CD-R to your aunt who makes pretty little wind chimes out of them and enjoy your doubly-compressed tune.. or just BUY an iPod!
---
I'm sure your store complaints are perfectly valid, however. That said, it's just a friggin' web store - they can change that whatever way they like (except for violating any 1-click pat.. ah, right. nm). I'm sure Amazon has geeks browsing the web for news about their ventures 24/7 and are bound to read your complaints here, but why not contact them and tell them directly what you think they could do better? They just might be listening.
Not that I think you would be swayed even if it worked as good as, or even better than, the iTunes Music Store. Just a gut feeling there.
I'm passing to!
I'm a subscriber too and your comment is correct except for one thing except for one thing. Music is NOT 128 kbps. It's LAME VBR, encoded with --preset standard (a very good balance between space and quality, usually beats 192kbps).
Apart from all the cost, DRM, and bitrate issues mentioned, there is also an important point IMO.
iTunes (7.4.3) = 58MB download and makes your machine run slow (also likes to mess your file associations).
Amazon.com MP3's = no download required, can use any web-browser and any OS.
I know which iLike!
Take Nobody's Word For It.
the Amazon music store might as well be Apples, its certainly no threat to Apple's hardware sales (neither was the Zune but that's because it was built by committee and the chair person was a tone-deaf lawyer.)
... Moron!"
Apple now has the market lock necessary to 'survive' the creation of a competing music store. The synergy that the iTunesMusicStore brought to the iPod is now no longer necessary. It was initially created to provide a legal outlet for music to be bought.
The record companies are getting greedy(ier) (but are in fact slitting their own throats by trying to pressure Apple with a competing store, [not realizing that competition will have to occur on price per song alone, and will lower their take, {all the while selling even more iPods.}])
If I was a stake holder in any of these record companies, well... To the record company exec who came up with this brilliant sales strategy I would only say "Thanks
Since I'm not, I can only say "Thanks. You're my kind of moron."
MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
Personally, I first started buying from Amazon because they could locate and sell to me copies of books when when they had been out of print for awhile.
Something tells me you are unfamiliar with Amazon's original business model of keeping their overhead low by stocking practically nothing rather than paying to warehouse tons of things until somebody decides to buy them.
I don't see any mention of Swap CD, a service that allows you to trade CDs for a minimal charge (like, 50 cents a cd). You put up a list of the ones you're willing to trade and when someone picks one, you have to pay shipping (about $!) They have an excellent routine for printing out an "envelope" with address pre-printed you can wrap the CD in. Total cost for each CD is about $1.50, including the cost of shipping yours out and the fee for selecting another's CD. Lots of the CDs come with the inserts so you can get album art. This is another way of using Web technology to distribute music that's kind of fun and gets you cheap music, but the selection is of course catch-as -catch can, though I've gotten some really interesting stuff.
No DRM, great. I don't use iTunes for that reason, prefer to buy the cd.
Cheaper, great.
Must use 1-Click - I absolutely loath 1-Click, I do not wish to leave a credit card on file with anyone - I don't mind entering the card number for the purchases I make.
No shopping cart, thus the 1-click requirement I imagine.
Must install downloader to pull in albums - very irritating and needlessly blocks some operating systems.
Downloader does not support, FreeBSD, Linux, or Windows 2000. Turns out that it will install and work ok on w2k - they didn't try it?
Downloader (unless I've missed it) doesn't allow you to format the track names according to your prefrences - so have to script something to reformat the names.
Downloader doesn't create a play list for that album, good thing we already have to write a script.
Fix these nits and I would be quite happy with it.
The single most stupid feature of ITMS is that's limited to some predefined countries only, which makes iPods half-backed product in countries like out-of-the official list. I, for one live in Poland and if only new amazon store is available from within the Poland I vote for amazon with my money. thelima
DRM-free music is great, but is the audio codec used also unencumbered by licenses and patents?
If you're moving from MP3 to AAC, you may as well move to FLAC (or Ogg Vorbis which is superior to AAC, MP3 and WMA). Both FLAC and Vorbis are patent and license free codecs. Software developers technically can't implement MP3 and AAC without paying royalties to the patent holders on those codecs. Don't support those formats, they're not free.
Amazon doesn't seem to have an option to use a shopping cart for MP3 downloads even if you disabled one-click in your Amazon profile. this works just fine in iTunes.
This is annoying.
No, it leaves the the Linux and BSD crowds to have to do it the hard way, something they should be used to by now.
Coding with assembly is like playing with Legos. Coding an application in assembly is like building a car with Legos.
I tried to use Amazon's MP3 download store only to be stymied by the completely anemic search and sorting capabilities. Choose to search by "Song title" and type in a phrase. You get back all matches to song title, album title and artist. WTF? Worse, I could not find a way to sort the list by song title. Ex: Search for song title "Mary". The first 28 results don't have "Mary" in the song title!
Sorry, but iTunes is just an infinitely easier to use store than the Amazon web site; and have you SEEN the Wireless iTunes Music store??
I had no problem searching; my issues came with downloading. I purchased the music while at work, and agreed to use their downloaded -- it amounted to saving $5 to download the entire album of MP3s at once, and $7 over the physical price. Only to find out that the downloader can't handle a proxy server -- a fact which is never advertised. No problem, I say to myself, and forward the download file to my home address.
I launch the downloader at home, and find out that all my songs are no longer available for download! So I contact them, talk to an Indian gentleman to whom I have to repeat everything three times; then get transfered to the digital download support department.
He's an understanding fellow, more or less. He first tries to tell me that they only allow one download; but I explain that I know what and did not receive my one download, then I explain it again for goo measure. Finally he seems to get it, and sets up the download so that I can get one track at a time through my 'digital library' page. Great! It only took another 10 minutes, but at least they were nice about it.
So I go down the list and download each file. I do them all at the same time. But when the download dust clears, tracks 4,13,16 are nowhere to be found. I try to download them by clicking the links and am told, "You have already downloaded this song."
I just paid the extra $2.89 to purchase the songs again. It wasn't worth another 10 minutes of my time, and was still a net gain over purchasing the physical medium. Still, it was a very frustrating and irritating experience. I will probably give them one more chance, but unless it's a flawless experience it'll be my last.
It's already been done (sort of) and looks like it didnt work.
It was called "Anywhere CD" and the man behind it was serial enterpreneur Michael Robertson (he of MP3.com fame).
nda
Another point to consider:
iTunes has an affiliate program.
But what about Amazon's new service. It is still not active.
Cheaper price, being able to listen to my songs anywhere I want on as many devices as I want... Amazon to me beats Apple hands down. Luca
eMusic has been on slashdot dozens of times.
I'm a Mac fanboy who is saving his pennies for an iPhone. I like the iTunes Store, but Amazon has a few advantages.
1. It's web-based. A friend can email me a URL to a song which I can then buy. Supposedly the same can be done in iTunes, but I don't know how to create such a URL. This is phenomenal.
2. Search is better on Amazon. You can specify song, artist, or album title. In iTunes, it's just one search keyword for all three possible columns. Then you get back a bunch of irrelevant crap to wade through by changing the sort order of the columns.
3. Perhaps the selection is better for more obscure stuff. I've been looking for this song they play on Sirius radio's Boombox channel- 'Deep' by TC featuring MC Jakes. My searches on iTunes has been fruitless. On Amazon I found it right away and now I'm about to buy it.
The iTunes DRM stuff has never bugged me in the least. Easier access to stuff has been an annoyance, though, and the above three reasons are great leaps by Amazon over iTunes.
Seth
$5 / month hosted VPS on linux = awesome!
The recording industry is really showing Apple. They're saying. "Hey Apple, we aren't your little monkey that you can boss around! You're trying to make us sell our music DRM free for only $1.28. Well, we'll show you! We are going to sell our music DRM free on Walmart and Amazon for 99 cents. What do you think of that!"
What does Apple think of that? What does Apple think of these two major music stores no longer selling music in non-iPod playing WMV format and now in iPod playing MP3 format? What does Apple who probably didn't make a penny on iTunes think of this whole thing? If it sells iPods, Apple is thrilled. After all, if you download any MP3 anywhere on your hard drive, iTunes can pick it up and throw it on your iPod.
Apple's next trick: They'll modify the iTunes program to allow users to select which store they'd like to buy their non-copy protected MP3 from. Who cares where someone buys their MP3s from as long as they play it on an iPod.
And all along, we all thought that the music industry was absolutely clueless!
1. Having never wanted to do this before, I thought I'd try the first thing that came to my mind, and it worked. To get a song's URL in iTunes (on a Mac, anyway), right-click (or control-click or do that equivalent thing on trackpads) the song in iTunes and select "Copy iTunes Store URL." Seems to work for everything in iTunes (TV shows, movies, etc.).
2. To get a more useful search in iTunes, go to the Store menu and select "Search..."
3. Can't find this track on iTunes, I suspect because they don't have it. Whether that indicates that Amazon's selection of two million tracks has more obscure stuff than iTunes's selection of six million tracks -- and whether that is good or bad -- I can't say.
The day has only 24 hours a day, 8 of which one is asleep, another 8 one is hopefully working.
Then add all other kind of activities that a rounded individual will engage in and frankly listening to old albums seems like one of the worst kinds of freakery.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
it's been mentioned here before that the DRM benifits Apple as much as music companies. After all Apple runs iTunes to sell iPods, if you aren't buying iPods then they don't want you wasting their bits. The labels don't like being "used" to help Apple get bigger selling iPods while being reduced to "value added" extras.
I thought I'd give it a spin, but the very first file I downloaded was screwed. Hissing static all through the first 60 seconds.
A mere $0.89 down the drain, but I'll be a lot more cautious about trying it again.
Like, three days ago?
Better quality at lower download size. I imagine it makes a difference for Apple's finances, as they're selling millions of songs, so the bandwidth adds up...
Yeah, MP3 works with everything, but converting AAC to MP3 is a one-click process in iTunes, and AAC works with pretty much every at least vaguely modern device, too.
I love that Amazon is giving Apple's iTunes a run for their money..just what we need more competition and variety. Currently, I am a avid user of iTunes apple store as I have an iPod; however, I do love sales and bargains when I see them. I feel Amazon is living up to their reputation as 'the dicounters', by producing this new product. Though I think many people will adopt this new beta because of low prices and better improvements, many will also keep their current usage of iTunes apple store because of the popular apple products circulating the society. Those non-apple users will most likely be the new betas best customers. I am not huge on the Apple/Mac style, but I do love my iPod and probably won't change my current ways. I see Amazon's new beta as a good thing; people can choose to what they are interested in, not just forced to use, 'the one everyone uses.'
Indeed Apple does get $.29 (not $.30) in *gross revenues* less the *fees* they pay the labels. That leaves a *gross* profit $.29 which is used to pay for advertising, infrastructure bandwidth, maintenance, taxes, etc. The highest estimates are that Apple might make as much as $.10 *net* profit per song. However, if anyone can squeeze extra money out of it through automation, streamlining, smart accounting, and tricky synergistic strategies and planning, it's Apple.
So by now, with their hard won experience and increased competition, I imagine Apple is in position to undercut the rest and still make it worth their while by a penny or two. Here's an article that contains the widely reported breakdown:
http://blogs.barrons.com/techtraderdaily/2007/04/23/apple-turns-out-itunes-makes-money-pacific-crest-says-subscription-service-seems-inevitable/
-- My apologies if the above facts contain any opinions, or vice versa! --
Wow - couldn't figure out what the search box at the top of the page was...
but the songs are tied to iPods so unless you're thinking of buying one you might consider to shop elsewhere. Look at it this way, after filling up your windows PC with iTunes songs how likely are you to buy an iPod, Apple TV, mac, etc? If Apple removed the strings attached to all your stuff then you might not be so likely to buy Apple stuff. Note that even free or independent stuff has to be m4p it's only recently they opened it up for EMI.
Ventrilo has had a statement up on their main page claiming to have a linux version of their client software in development for literally years. I hope you'll forgive me if I hold on to my skepticism until we have the product in our hands (so to speak).
I was very pleasantly surprised to see that the amazon mp3 catalogue includes cds by a number of fairly obscure australian bands that I haven't been able to track down in record stores (or been able to find a store that would get them in for me > ). I could probably find a music shop somewhere in sydney that would be able to get at least some of these cds in for me and then pay for them to be shipped to my address, but this wouldn't exactly be cheap or quick. So I was quite happy to see that I would be able to buy this music I'd been looking for for ages while also supporting the first really large online music provider to realise that the best way to succeed in the market is not to make things as hard as possible for your customers.
And then I found out that due to some piece of shit geographical IP filter I couldn't purchase this australian music from outside of the US.
Fucking ridiculous. The music may be DRM-less, but the mindset of using artificial technical restrictions to piss off consumers is still alive and well at amazon.