We’ve seen as many online music ventures come and go in the last few years as we’ve seen wannabe popstars crooning on American Idol. While some, like Real’s Rhapsody, have managed to carve out a niche for themselves by offering services that iTunes does not, such as subscription music, there’s never been one that could take the fight to Apple.
Until today. Amazon has launched its much-anticipated online music store, and it looks to be the first major iTunes rival worth sweating over. That’s mainly because of two factors: 1) support from the major record labels and 2) DRM-free downloads. The former means that we’ll be seeing much of the same music that iTunes features—at launch, Amazon has 2 million tracks from 180,000 artists—the latter is the holy grail for online music stores, because it means full compatibility with the iPod. With Amazon selling its entire catalog as 256kbps DRM-free MP3s, most for between $0.89 to $0.99 a track, it all adds up to one healthy throwdown.
They’ve got a little something up their sleevies, too, in the form of the Amazon Downloader. You see, Amazon’s smart enough to realize that they don’t want the task of handling device syncing; there’s already a perfectly serviceable framework for that, and it’s called iTunes. All the downloader (available for Mac and Windows) does is automatically import any music you buy from Amazon into iTunes (or Windows Media Player on the PC). Simple but effective, and brilliant. It also means it’s one of the only other services that’s compatible with the Mac. I’ve already tried it out this morning, and the experience was smooth as butter. And because it’s Amazon, you can just use your existing Amazon ID; no need to give them any more information.
At the moment, iTunes still has a better selection, and—from what I’ve seen—a more easily navigable interface. But those are both things that Amazon will likely improve in time; that’s one reason they’ve branded it as a beta. Amazon’s ability to deal with the major players and offer more or less what Apple wanted, i.e. DRM-free downloads with little variation in price, means that this is the first serious competitor to iTunes. And, for once, consumers stand to gain big time. Let the battle begin.
I do like the fact that they are actually supporting Mac, unlike with their Unbox service.
However, I've sworn off buying anything from Amazon due to their atrociously bad customer service.
I will probably continue to use the http://www.Bleep.com MP3 store for my techno needs and iTunes for more mainstream fare.
I love being an apple fanboy. Call me a sucker, but I hate digital downloads. I've always been a big fan of owning the actual CD, case, and booklet. At the price of music, I won't something for my money.
I usually buy my music from BMG when they have the "buy 1 get 4 free offer". A lot of the heavier stuff I lisen to just isn't available through BMG, nor is it at the local Best Buy, etc. It's usually in iTunes. Not a lot, but I have found myself sacrificing the tangible jewel case and insert for an iTunes digital download. I never though I'd see the day, but whatever.
Now I see that Amazon is offering the same music I recently downloaded for 10 cents cheaper (per song), at a higher bitrate, and DRM free! Sorry iTunes, but you're fired!
Thought I would try out this new service. Bought Al Green's Definitive Greatest Hits (2003 Digital Remaster) and downloaded using AmazonMP3Downloader. Download was fast and copied automatically to my iTunes Library. Files sound great; easy to use but not as elegant as iTS. Browsing is more cluttered but previewing tracks works very well; you can preview all tracks with one click. All in all, worked great and will try it again. Always good to have some competition.
Hmmmmm could be? Still I think Apple has one big advantage over Amazon. Apple is now known as a music sorce and when you buy an iPod you get pointed to iTunes. iTunes is a known factor and the price is reasonable. What is my motivation to "go" elsewhere at this point? Saving a dime perhaps? DRM? Apple's isn't that constrictive. I know some people are up in arms about DRM and in some respects I agree with their stance but I have to also admit it's like most things you find a more or less frindge element that is willing to make the effort to fight DRM and those people probably were not strong Apple/iTunes supporters anyway.
I just finished downloading from Amazon (just to check out the competition) and I gotta tell ya, it was pretty painless. The downloader worked well, and it also automatically adds the tracks into your iTunes library (although w/out a playlist for them, as with iTS's "Purchased").
Probably the best effort yet to tackle iTS especially w/out DRM, and, from what I've seen so far, at 256kbps. However, the icing on the cake would be if you could access the Amazon download store from an entirely separate program and download as well, a la iTunes, eliminating the use of an internet browser. That would really give iTunes a run for its money I think.
Just for the record...
I just tried a download. A pretty smooth process. You do have to install their little ditty of a downloader. No big deal. The 256 bitrate is actually 256 variable. I compaired it to a 160 bit version that I have and I can't tell the difference, although the file size is 4.2M vs 2.4M.
I have just tried it. - It sucks. Terrible user interface design. Amazon should hire and focus on the design aspect of their business. It will take them years to catch up with Apple.
When is 256kbps not 256kbps?
I purchased some songs from Amazon just minutes ago. Some of them are encoded at 256kbps, but many are not. It seems that many of the songs I purchased are encoded using the space saving VBR or variable bit rate feature of MP3. So one song I checked was only coded at 175kbps VBR.
Interesting.
Dammit, release this service in Europe already! Given the reviews that I've seen so far I am very interested in Amazon's offering. DRM-free was already a good start but cheaper than iTunes Store and provides software to get the tracks into iTunes makes this a winner for me. Improve the interface, increase the selection and rollout the product around the globe and Apple has some serious competition that will make things very interesting.
Good to keep Apple on their toes.