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January 10, 2008

music

Sony caves; DRM is dead, dead, dead

Posted Jan. 10, ’08, 1:26 PM PT by Dan Moren
Category | Music

Live and Let DieOkay, maybe Sony’s not entirely idiotic. Earlier in the week, we gave them a piece of our mind about their ridiculous DRM-free music plan (short version: go to a store, buy a card, take it home, then download your music). Rightfully so: it’s a lame move in an era where the rest of the major labels had actually stuck their necks out.

Well, turns out that was just the first shoe dropping. The second fell today, as we got wind of news that Amazon MP3 has now added Sony BMG as their fourth major record label. As of later this month, customers will be able to buy and download tracks from Sony BMG via the Amazon MP3 store.

And that’s all, folks. The four major labels have all dropped DRM. I’ve longed to write that headline, but now that the moment has come, I’m still curious to know what this means for the future of iTunes. I know the average user doesn’t care much about DRM, but with Amazon offering cheaper tracks that work more or less seamlessly with the iPod and iTunes, will customers be switching over? It’s certainly hard for me to justify continuing to shop at iTunes (except for all those leftover Christmas gift cards).

I’d hope that once the music labels feel like they’ve gotten their revenge on Jobs (and make no mistake, that’s what their avoidance of iTunes is about), the rest of the labels will come to iTunes—especially if, even with all that DRM music, iTunes continues to outsell Amazon MP3, which I’m guessing it will for some time to come.

What about it, readers: will you be switching to shopping at Amazon or sticking with iTunes, or will you—devilish deal-hunters that you are—play both sides? Sound off below.

[Hat tip: Jon Seff]


21 Comments

fletcher Author Profile Page said:

I will never buy anything from Amazon.com that I can possibly purchase anywhere else. It is not worth suffering the pain of dealing with that company for any reason.

I'll probably go with iTunes for the time being. The DRM doesn't bother me much. But, I look forward to when the labels pull their heads out of their bottoms and let us buy the same tracks from any service.

January 10, 2008 1:45 PM
Walt Author Profile Page said:

iTunes is the only place I look for my music now. I hear a song I want, I check iTunes and buy it. If I run into a situation where it's not on iTunes but is on Amazon, I'll buy it off Amazon. iTunes will be my first stop though.

January 10, 2008 1:55 PM
Dave-O said:

I'll buy from Amazon when it's cheaper. I have found things cheaper on iTunes (not often) and things Amazon doesn't have.

What I can't figure is that the labels were bothered by the dominance of iTunes, so they'll hand the market to Amazon? Isn't the prudent strategy to offer the same music to both companies? If I hear complaints that Amazon has too much influence in a couple years, I will laugh my ass off.

January 10, 2008 2:01 PM
Anonymous said:

Ugh, I'm glad. But iTunes is more convenient than Amazon, and is available internationally. I really hope Sony, Warner and Universal work things out with Apple so we can get their songs on iTunes.

January 10, 2008 2:31 PM
Goobimama said:

The joy of using the iTunes store is something that Amazon can't offer in a web browser. In the iTunes store, you feel like the songs are almost on your hard drive, just a "buy now" away.

That being said, I'm all for Amazon getting in on the digital downloads action. It's not good for Apple to have a monopoly over things. It stops innovation.

January 10, 2008 2:32 PM
Dave said:

For some reason I thought Amazon wasn't Mac compatible. Oh, well. DRM doesn't bother me much, but I'd rather see it die and quick death just because it *can* be a PITA. I don't know what bitrate Amazon uses, but I've never gotten a bad-sounding track in the AAC compression that Apple offers.

January 10, 2008 2:40 PM
Anonymous said:

I check Amazon for music when I think of it, but I don't always remember to do so.

Amazon's advantages are the no-DRM, higher bit rate MP3s, plus the music reviews (for classical music anyway) are head and shoulders above the incessant moronity posted on iTunes. The disad is that their download system requires jumping through a hoop or two, but it's easy enough.

If you are a website owner affiliated with Amazon, you also get commissions on MP3 sales as you would from books and other stuff.

January 10, 2008 2:51 PM
Simon Author Profile Page said:

Well, as "Amazon MP3 is currently only available to US customers", I'll be using iTunes.

January 10, 2008 3:05 PM
Joseph said:

I'd prefer to purchase from whichever store is cheaper. I love iTunes, but it's certainly nice to be able to get songs from another source.

I've heard some dissatisfaction with Amazon, but my experiences have generally been ok. I mean, how badly can a company screw up DRM-free downloads?

January 10, 2008 3:45 PM
Scooter said:

I have found some very obscure, hard-to-find tracks available on Amazon, and thus I've used it quite a bit. Cheap, also - usually 89c or 99c maximum. The process is reasonably smooth, although their "mp3 downloader" requires installation if you plan to download many tracks at once. Otherwise, simply downloading to a folder the mp3 file itself, with a one-click purchase, is simple. Not sure why there are so many Amazon-haters out there; anything I've ever bought was fine, and if I didn't like it, was returnable with nary a word from them, and a fast refund. The Amazon tracks are generally in 256kbp mp3; not as good as lossless and maybe not as good as AAC, but I like the compatability with any type of player, software, etc. not limiting me to iTunes or the iPod (which I would naturally default to anyway, but don't want to remain file-constrained by format). If you have a US Amazon account you can use it from anywhere in the world; all you need is a US-issued credit card and address to set it up. DRM gone - great. Inevitable and timely for '08.

January 10, 2008 4:53 PM
T.S. Melo said:

As a brazilian user, it's sad that both Amazon and iTunes don't allow me to purchase any music. You would think that in the digital world this kind of thing would be a no-issue, but guess what?

January 10, 2008 5:50 PM
Paul said:

I feel a bit for Apple here, they created this market, they told the Labels that you need to drop the price, drop the DRM. So becuse Apple did the right thing by noty letting them jack the price up, the Labels are now doing things the why Apple wanted in the first place.

Back to the subject, I live in Austalia, so itunes for me. BUT if I could us Amazon I would, I can buy the tracks then drop them into iTunes... which is what most people do, i think. So when iTunes goes DRM free I would then go back to iTunes, why bother with the extra step

January 10, 2008 6:05 PM
Omar Zafra said:

I will never buy from Amazon! I know iTunes will continue to outsell Amazon, especially with all the awesome iPods Apple sells that make it so easy and seamless to integrate with iTunes. I really think the music labels are doing a big mistake, especially when iTunes have climbed the ranks to be the third largest seller of music under BestBuy and Walmart and is gaining ground with iPhones and its iTunes WiFi were customers can download music wherever they may be onto their phone and back to there computers. Not to mention the incredible record growth Mac computers are having!!!

January 10, 2008 6:37 PM
Anonymous said:

No, I will not be buying any MP3's from Amazon. iTunes is still more convenient and seamless and just a better experience period. Plus I've never had a problem with the DRM in iTunes music. It just works for me and that's all I need.

January 10, 2008 10:21 PM
Anonymous said:

I'd be happy to buy from Amazon if and when they move this service out of beta and also outside the US. For the moment iTunes continues to have my loyalty and it would probably remain if they can expand the range of iTunes Plus to cover everything. Aside from the lack of support for customers outside the US, Amazon appears to lag behind iTunes with their interface - browsing the iTunes Store is much easier. Exceed or at least come to parity with the iTunes Store in terms of usability and then it's going to be decided on price. I don't really care who sells me my music as long as the product, price and ease of access is good.

January 11, 2008 2:08 AM
John Graveside said:

while competition is great and all, amazon's mp3 dept is not really an improvement over itunes in terms of selection. most of the stuff i want isn't available on itunes (i suspect due to international licensing issues), but a quick check of amazon's mp3 dept shows the same glaring ommisions.

that being said, the inflexibility of DRM has always made me hesitant to buy from itunes, but at the same time to offer a product (unrestricted tracks) to amazon but not to itunes is just unfair. i hope apple is considering suing - it sounds like a solid case to me.

January 11, 2008 3:15 AM
KAdamsInCo said:

Seamless integration. Mac OS X -> iTunes -> iPods. It is all from Apple and it all works perfectly. With five iPods in the house the easier to manage the better. I buy music from iTunes exclusively and will continue to do so. It would be nice to be able to purchase all music DRM free and for the same price as Amazon, but like other iPod users, it isn't a 'must have' for me.


January 11, 2008 10:56 AM
James Bailey said:

I suspect that most of the labels will be back on the iTunes Store next week or sometime in the near future.

I probably will never buy much from Amazon for the simple reason that it isn't as integrated as using iTunes. Also, I would very much like to remove the DRM from the tracks that I've already bought. I'm perfectly willing to pay $0.30 to do so but I'm not willing to pay the full price of the track again.

So, DRM free music on iTunes means more money from me at least. I doubt the dust up with Apple over iTunes has much to do with money though.

January 11, 2008 10:58 AM
KAdamsInCo said:

Seamless integration. Mac OS X -> iTunes -> iPods. It is all from Apple and it all works perfectly. With five iPods in the house the easier to manage the better. I buy music from iTunes exclusively and will continue to do so. It would be nice to be able to purchase all music DRM free and for the same price as Amazon, but like other iPod users, it isn't a 'must have' for me.


January 11, 2008 11:18 AM
SMJH said:

Since I don't typically "share" my music downloads with others, the DRM issue never bothered me, until one day, I wanted to make an MP3 cd for my car and discovered I can only rip an analog CD with DRM'ed aquisitions. The MP3 fidelity is fine for my car and allows me to get many more songs on the CD and select tracks by name so this is a big nuisance although not a showstopper thanks to the ability to rip an analog cd.

Given this experience, I am tempted in the future to buy from Amazon even though it is not nearly as seamless or user friendly as buying from iTunes.

Ideally, iTunes will stop DRM'ing its offerings and each will do something for the customer to differentiate itself so that the customer wins in the end... hopefully...

January 11, 2008 3:40 PM
Fred Egan said:

What do you think??? Wherever the higher quality downloads exist while also being DRM free is where my money (and probably everyone else's) is going.

January 13, 2008 7:26 AM

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