If you're into DRM-free music, you have a reason to get pretty excited today. As
speculated,
Amazon has launched the public beta of its new digital music portal called Amazon MP3, which will feature two million songs from 180,000 artists and 20,000 labels, all without the painful and annoying restrictions of DRM. The press release claims that the site, which will include EMI and Universal tracks (take that, Jobs), will make separate songs available for $.89 or $.99, and boasts that all of the "top 100" tracks will be priced at the former, lower amount. Albums will range in cost from $5.99 to $9.99, with the best selling albums coming in at $8.99. Of course, since there's no DRM, users are free to throw the 256Kbps MP3s on any player they like, as well as burn CDs, copy to MiniDisc, and dump to 8-track.
posted Sep 25th 2007 9:13AM
A step in the right direction. Now if they'd only sell it in lossless format...
256Kbps is quite an acceptable rate for those of us who aren't audiophiles but still dislike the distortion of "standard" 128 Mbps.
One step at a time, dear boy. One step at a time. If you move too quickly you'll just scare them back into their hole.
I still wonder why they were they making such a bitch-and-moan session over Apple's $1.29 per DRM-free track yet they're supposedly happy with Amazon's 89 to 99 cent price. Huh? Wha--? I can't believe for a second that Universal is actually happy that the customer is getting a better price.
256kbps is a lot higher than most stores these days. And it's very hard to notice non lossless songs while on the move. I have all my Zune stuff in 256kbps MP3 and it sounds fine. On my computer with peace and quiet FLAC does sound much better... but I can't imagine the bandwidth costs it would take to offer FLAC downloads. Not to mention the amount of bitching the music corporations would offer to have full CD quality...
@John B.
quote--"I still wonder why they were they making such a bitch-and-moan session over Apple's $1.29 per DRM-free track yet they're supposedly happy with Amazon's 89 to 99 cent price. Huh? Wha--? I can't believe for a second that Universal is actually happy that the customer is getting a better price."--quote
Maybe it is Apple that wants the higher price for DRM Free iTunes? If the music they sell can be played on any MP3 player then people have no reason to purchase Apple's cash printing machine called the iPod.
Except for the fact that the iPod is still (ok..arguably) the best MP3 player out there in terms of features, build, and cost.
"If the music they sell can be played on any MP3 player then people have no reason to purchase Apple's cash printing machine called the iPod." - Jimmy
Oh please, it's the tired old argument that iPod success is due only to iTunes lock-in. Give me a break. There are many reasons to choose an iPod over competing players, price being one of them (160GB for $349 - hard to beat that).
Troll different.
"I can't imagine the bandwidth costs it would take to offer FLAC downloads"
Amazon charges only 13 cents per GB for their S3 service so their costs are even lower. Assuming an average lossless CD is 250-500 MBs that's only 3.25-6.5 cents per full album. And that's the price Amazon currently charges to make a profit, so their actual cost would be even less.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/browse.html?node=16427261
"Except for the fact that the iPod is still (ok..arguably) the best MP3 player out there in terms of features, build, and cost."
Don't try to pass off opinion as fact.
Fact: iPod is not a good value. There are smaller machines with more storage space and less propriety out there for cheaper cost (and there have always been).
Opinion: I think the iPod has a pretty slick interface. I've always liked jog controls (I know what you fanboys out there are thinking... "blasphemy! Apple didn't invent that interface?!?!" No, they didn't).
Have I or would I ever buy one? No. The cons outweigh the pros for me.
Clearly Scot and Quix have not priced other models - Ipods lack the features of other players and cost much more!
Perhaps Larz and BEE Bopp can send me a link for an iPod-equivalent DAP with *160 GB* of storage for less than $349?
I'll be waiting...
"Don't try to pass off opinion as fact." - Larz
"Fact: iPod is not a good value" - Larz
Larz, perhaps you should take a hard look at your first statement and then reevaluate your second.
Just because apple offers a 160gb ipod for $349 doesn't make them the best. Look at offerings in the $80 range - you can buy a 1gb ipod shuffle with no screen and very basic features or a 2gb Creative Zen with a 1.5" display and advanced features including AM/FM radio and the ability to view photos. Not everyone wants to spend $350 on a mp3 player.
@ Pam
Exactly, just because they are doing well at one pricepoint, the highest, does not mean they are doing well overall. Every other device in the lineup is beat by an equivalent with lower price, or more features for the same price.
Remember, the battle for the average Joe is not taking place at 350 dollars, but at the sub 200 range. And with a store like this with great high quality cheap music and no DRM, plus the ability to buy any player you want, its all about choice, of which Apple gives you little.
Quix:
That statement was fact and I backed it up with the following: "There are smaller machines with more storage space and less propriety out there for cheaper cost"
It's stupid to ask me to make comparisons on 160GB models. 160GB DAP's are a brand-spankin-new thing. I admit Apple has a decent price for those and is one of the first out the gate with them... and they should be, since they've made butt-loads of cash off iDiots who bought earlier bulky iPods with low storage capacity for $400.
Asking me to compare 160GB models is like asking to compare all the Cell/BE products out there.
But if I must make some comparison: Archos does have a 160GB PMP coming out with a huge screen--a touch screen even, WiFi, TV out, web browser, PDF viewer, video recorder, audio recorder, more file type support for audio video and photo's, etc. For $399--a much better VALUE.
wow... the ability to use something you pay for anyway you want.. won't this cause the downfall of society?
Surely this encourages terrorism...right?
no, but it does fund it...
I wont download it unless it transforms into a 50 foot giant robot with lasers AND that robot has to come in a jeweled, jewel case for .99 a song
Needs to be lossless for me to consider. Or at least a higher bitrate at cheaper price.
Boy, theres no pleasing anyone!
I agree, next someone will be saying "I don't buy any digital download unless they teleport the jewel case"
I don't buy any digital download unless they teleport the jewel case
So enjoy your 256Kbps music in an archaic format then.
Ooh, don't forget to complain that they don't offer OGG Vorbis format!
256kbps DRM-less music is a good step in the right direction as with iTunes Plus.
Jon has the right idea. We SHOULD be able to choose between audio quality formats however, that doesn't mean we should give up because 256kbps is what's "hot" right now.
I want to bring up a website called Beatport. This is a music service that allows people to puchase mp3s either in 320kbps, VBR or in WAV (sent by mail only). I think Beatport serves as a great model because not only is the bandwidth fast, but they offer high quality music. Although the price is higher ($1.99 a track), it is understandable because the music is normally 6-8 minutes long anyway.
Like I said, 256kbps DRM-less music is a step in the right direction for now at least. Why couldn't they just go for 320kbps I do not know. But it is a little annnoying because the formats are nearly identical in size, but still, it's not 320 OR lossless (yet).
Sweet... there is a fair amount of stuff here that iTunes doesn't carry...
Finally, I can dump to 8-track! Nice, cya iTunes
8-Track... retro baby! I still remember having Van Halen's first album on 8-Track and having to fast forward through the whole damn thing to listen to Eruption over and over again. Awesome.
I wonder how many people reading this blog are wondering what the hell an 8-track is?????
@Whiplash
If it were not for my parents you would probably be correct.
I had an eight-track recorder back in the 70's. Darned if I remember who made it, though. It wasn't a well-known brand. You couldn't imagine how much wear the eight-track format put on tapes. The iron oxide would be flaking off in no time at all. That looping tape format was downright gruesome.
I'd record the late night Disco Jams or the latest vinyl tunes and play them in my MG sports car the next day. Pretty sweet for those times. That's why I can't quite tolerate how you guys bitch about how lousy some of these current devices are. You probably wouldn't even want to listen to music made before the 1980's unless it was played on some $5000 high-end audio system. Who the heck had those systems. I never met anyone that did. We just listened to what was available, turned up the bass and grooved to the beat. One nation under the scratchy vinyl.
a step in the right direction, higher quality MP3s will be great for most people and should keep itunes on it's toes
MP3 without DRM, yay! Now I can buy music without being treated as a criminal :)
Who do you think you're kidding? You know very well they're still going to *view* us as criminals even if we're not being treated that way. I'm sure that you can expect watermarking of some kind to be taking place. That's certainly thousands of times better than DRM, so I'm most definitely not complaining about that.
But don't kid yourself. They're doing this because of extremely loud customer demand, not because of being good corporate citizens who want to make a better experience out of the goodness of their hearts. You can be damned sure that they still view us not as "potential customers" but as "potential pirates", but hopefully now with less incentive to pirate.
Once I see Universal making calls to Congress to make changes to the DMCA to allow legal decryption of DVDs for backup purposes, THEN I'll be less skeptical of their opinions of us as consumers.
I'm in.
How do you get to the store?
Amazon has become one of those sites that is so cluttered.
Ditto. I can't seem to find a link to the store,anywhere on the site (and I'm normally familiar with amazon.com) or find it on a Google search. They haven't launched it yet maybe?
Ok I found it, but I had to do an amazon search for "MP3" and then click the banner up top of the results page.
I really want to believe this will be a good thing, but if no one can find it... well
I just tried www.amazonmp3.com and got there just fine.
Another way to find it is to go to the music section on Amazon, then scroll down and you'll find a blue bit that reads 'Amazon Earworm' and click on the 'Amazon MP3 Open for Public Beta' news. There you'll find a letter announcing the beta and there's a link.
Here is the link:
http://www.amazon.com/b/ref=sa_menu_dmusic2/102-0572457-7145764?ie=UTF8&node=163856011&tag=opensounds-20&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=9325
www.amazonmp3.com
You can actually discover it quite well by accident - whenever you look at any music that is available in the MP3 format "Download as MP3" appears as a purchase option. I personally found out that the service was live when I went to buy an album today (before reading about it here or getting the press release from Amazon PR). Worked perfectly in my case.
-avi
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/browse/-/163856011
http://www.amazon.com/b/ref=sd_allcatpop_dmusic/103-6194276-7403843?%5Fencoding=UTF8&node=163856011
Look under see all categories...
w00t!
I got the link from their blog:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/blog/post/PLNK1GR94T4PJ38D6/103-7095691-4488607?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-7&pf_rd_r=12NB7203FD11ARCTW0S0&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=249703901&pf_rd_i=5174
Amazon MP3:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html/ref=cm_plog_item_link/103-7095691-4488607?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fexec%2Fobidos%2Ftg%2Fbrowse%2F-%2F163856011&token=1C06402C23405B5C68800660F71427E69D58852C
now who will be first to embed lyrics?? thats what i really want to know.
Amazon will get my money, their catalogue is unmatched.
Though their CD catalog is incredible, it's gonna take a long time for their MP3 catalog to be at the same level. For instance, their new MP3 listings include tons of great jazz, but no U2? And a bunch of older albums and singles from some groups, but not those same groups' newer releases.
I understand that their selection will grow as more labels sign on and more tracks are converted to this format, but their MP3 catalog won't be at the level of the CD catalog for quite some time.
It doesn't appear to be a worldwide store as I can't purchase songs from my international billing address. Lame!
I'm in the UK and I just added a new account on amazon.com, allbeit I could enter my correct address, but it still processed the transaction just fine :)
That's because Americans are more equal than others. Can you imagine if Dark Side Of The Moon fell into the wrong hands--like the terrorists'? They might listen to Us And Them and get all disillusioned and give up the "war", and then what?! Oh, wait...
For those of you looking for it. Look under the "See all 42 Product Categories"
Amazon already has the convenience of it just working with my Amazon account, no fuss. Now I can do the same thing with it as I am with Unbox. Wonder if they will just update Unbox to support the music service or if they will release a separate app altogether. Hopefully just update Unbox for convenience sake.
For the record, the new Creative Zen does not work with XP x64. I tried installing the media manager(only way to get your music onto the player correctly) and it was a no go. Amazon Unbox, however, can transfer it's videos onto the Zen fine. So until they make an x64 version of the software I have to lug all my media to work to put it on my Zen unless it's Unbox downloads or vanilla WMV's that just work(which is rare seeing as most WMV's I tried to transfer needed to be transcoded to a different type of WMV).
Oh, and 32bit XP, 32bit Vista, and 64bit Vista(WTF?) work fine with the Zen software. I guess the lazy programmers at Creative didn't feel like going the whole 9 yards and making a x64 version.
/rant
Don't know...
Prices seem fair enough for MP3 non DRM files. Wonder why Universal had a dispute with iTunes, since prices seem to be the same.
Of course not all music has the same price (as in iTunes). But if Jobs was so stubborn not to step down even on that little point I fear tough times ahead for iTunes Store. Because, from a price perspective, there is no understandable reason why Apple shouldn't have been in a position to strike a similar deal as Amazon did.
(I am an iTunes user, but seriously considering Amazon as an alternative)
Again, pricing seems fair enough to me.
This is how it starts. Then once they run iTunes out of business they jack the prices up.
Just gotta say, wow, just wow. 'Bout time as well.
this is a awesome deal.
this is awesome. apple will surely follow suit... it's just a matter of time
I think apple is way too arrogant to license mp3... they will continue to offer AAC files at a 'premium' price. Cuz.. ya know... it's a 'privilege' to have non-encrypted audio files.
How easy is it to use? Time is money.
That's the thing, I use Amazon and a couple of smaller on-line distributors to buy my CD's (Still haven't made the jump to buying downloads, DRM and backup issues) and their site is so cluttered it makes it a pain to buy things, on the other hand it works great to find related artists/releases. iTunes Store, I used for a while (Had a gift card) and while the process of downloading and buying is extremely simple the process to search for related artists is not as streamlined as Amazon's.
Hopefully someone at last.fm will get a clue and partner with either to provide access to their databases for matching related/similar artists.
Easy enough. Search works, had to install Amazon Downloader app but that was easy enough and has to be done only once, then they send you a .amz file, open with downloader, songs get downloader and added to the iTunes library (on the Mac).
$9.51 for an album of 256bit mp3 is fine for me. Saves me from having to rip it.
I don't believe all the people who think they hear a difference between a proper 256 encoding and flacc on their sub-$100,000 system.
Long time ago there was a blind test by reputed german computer mag c't which found that professional musicians could not tell 256bit mp3s from CDs, and that was on very high end studio equipment.
I do understand that people want lossless for collection purposes though. But consider that encoding to CD also incurs losses as the high and low frequencies are cut off and so on.
I look forward to the time when an online music store sees sense and "does an allofmp3" by offering your choice of downloadable formats with appropriate price points. If Amazon offered stuff in FLAC, I'd jump at the chance.
+1 for copying AllOfMp3. And not just the format choice but the prices as well. $10 for an Album should be FLAC lossless since that's the price you pay and what you would get with a CD. Compressed formats (like 192Kb VBR MP3) should come down from there.
i'm sure someone will post this info in some place more prominent than the bottom of an Engadget comment thread, but...
You can buy an individual song from Mac, Windows, or Linux. But if you want to buy a whole album at once (thereby getting the discount), you need to download a little helper app that only exists for Mac or PC (as far as I could tell).
Also: I just purchased a file and looked at it a hex editor. I did not immediately see anything that struck me as uniquely identifying me. It does have a unique song id, but I don't know if that is tied to me on the backend. (The song was "We are the Night" by Chemical Brothers. The ID in my MP3 is 202229080TRC.) There is metadata at the beginning and end of the file.
Correction: The song is "Battle Stars." The album is "We are the Night."
Not sure if anyone posted info on this elsewhere...
I think you track ID is only 9 chars. The trailing chars appear to be the Track listing.
Here is a snippet of Radiohead's Black Star:
"Amazon.com Song ID: 201981377TRCK 10/12APIC image/jpeg JFIF"
I am not really familiar with ID3v2 tags but I opened it in HexEdit and could not find anything peculiar except for the "image/jpeg" text.
What is the image/jpeg for? Is this album art, and do ID3 tags (or MP3 files) support image embedding?
Just curious before I start spreading all of my new non-DRM MP3s over the Intertubes. :)
i don't get it.
i thought the whole pissing match between universal and itunes was that itunes wasn't willing to budge on it's .99/9.99 pricing structure and that apple wasn't strict enough with their copyright protection. so now they are on amazon selling singles and albums for less than itunes and sans DRM?
isn't this what itunes wanted in the first place? what message are they trying to send to jobs? i don't think he really cares where people buy their content from as long as they're buying ipods.
good move if this is the direction that they're going, but i bet that the pricing structure is temporary and that the greedy music industry bastards will raise their heads soon enough. mark my words.
Its also about the cut the store is taking. Itunes has been criticized for taking an excessive cut of the 99c for a song, so perhaps Amazon is willing to take a lesser profit.
Radiohead is there!
http://www.amazon.com/Radiohead/dp/B000QJXOGC/ref=pd_ts_th_5/102-2037860-4072949?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-4&pf_rd_r=1RJ8BEA0RQ3AVY2A6WB3&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=299326801&pf_rd_i=163856011
Yeah that was my first thought when I saw they had "The Bends" on the graphic advert. Finally, Radiohead. Although you can only buy their entire albums.
I just downloaded The Bends for USD 8.99. The quality is nice at 320Kbs. As a result the files are about 7-8 MB each. A little larger than I am used to (I use Napster) but when the 16GB Sansa View comes out, space won't be a problem :-)
Coool man! Time for me to dust off my old 8-Track and start loading it up with some cool tunes...
Yeah, great... "As required by our Digital Content providers, Digital Content will, unless otherwise designated, be available only to customers located in the United States."
Thanks for nothing Amazon... As usually other countries are left out in the cold. And then the music labels complaint about piracy, but apparently never learn.
Why the heck can I buy the CDs from anywhere, but not download mp3s from anywhere as well?! Is it so friggin' difficult to make a worldwide store?
Pirate Bay, here I come...
Damn I didn't see that.
I can confirm that they are not (yet?) checking IPs though, downloading from Asia right here. With U.S. credit card.
Or you could just supply a fake billing address - "1st Street, CA, 90210" like I did and hope they don't notice! ;)
I've just downloaded three tracks with my UK credit card and no problems so far. With the GBP / USD exchange rate at 2:1, this means lovely DRM free MP3s for 45p - sweet.
Hm... but what would happen if they notice that the address is a fake? Special RIAA troops rushing through your window? :D
Great, great news. I'll still use emusic as my mainstay as it is much cheaper, but when emusic is missing something I'm interested in, I'll look to Amazon MP3 to see if they have it. I've already found one such album I want to pick up. Sound quality appears to be very good too - they encode with 256 kbps VBR.) One big hole in the catalog so far is The White Stripes. emusic doesn't have their latest album but has the ones prior. I was hoping to pick up Icky Thump from Amazon MP3, but no even remote luck. They essentially have nothing.
Great, great news. I'll still use emusic as my mainstay as it is much cheaper, but when emusic is missing something I'm interested in, I'll look to Amazon MP3 to see if they have it. I've already found one such album I want to pick up. Sound quality appears to be very good too - they encode with 256 kbps VBR.) One big hole in the catalog so far is The White Stripes. emusic doesn't have their latest album but has the ones prior. I was hoping to pick up Icky Thump from Amazon MP3, but no even remote luck. They essentially have nothing.
I guess i'll be the first to say something about the picture then. Why the hell have they got a Toshiba Gigabeat F series player 4th there? That thing's pretty damn old now, and I miss mine - damn chav thieves who don't even have a clue what it is.
That is a weird situation... Why wouldn't Apple get the same deal as it is extremely similar to the current iTunes scheme?
I can see two things:
Either Universal wanted to get away from Apple's tight grip so they denied renewal and then just found an excuse why they did not renew as to not be seen as the bad guys.
Or they were happy with the 99c but they wanted a bigger slice from those 99c and Apple refused which would be totally stupid.
On top of that EMI is selling their DRM free content for half a dollar less per song at Amazon. Which means that either EMI screwed Apple or Apple screwed its iTunes customers.
Regardless iTunes will start feeling the pressure. I hope they did not do both mistakes because of greed, cause they already have made a mistake with the iPhone - asking carriers for a slice of their iPhone customers revenue - and that is pure greed.
Apple (should I say Jobs) is too stubborn. Radiohead album is on Amazon but you can only purchase two songs separately, the rest is "album only". Prices are flexible, unlike iTunes, but overall not as high as many (me included) feared they would be.
I think Apple's stubborness has opened huge opportunities for competitors! Now Apple just has to sit down and take some time to think things over.
Price and simplicity are good and positive, but the amount of content you offer, on an online store, is much more important (particularly now that they are finally moving towards DRM free music, which allows people to switch from a store to the other as it pleases).
Apple should have given up, considering that the prices wouldn't have skyrocketed as many people here speculated.
All markets are emotional.. And the music market also is.
So:
- Amazon will gain momentum
- Amazon will get hype
- Labels will now abandon iTunes like a wrecked ship (iTunes is no longer THE ONLY online music store)
All of this unless Apple gets its act together and allows labels a little freedom (with limitations of course).
Apple recently started screwing to many things up at the same time. Maybe Jobs and other senior manager should take a course called:
"when your business grows you HAVE to have partners".
Lesson I
What is a partner?
A partner is much more than somebody who wants to screw you or somebody to screw.
(practical examples and case studies)
Lesson II
Partners can actually have ideas that work
A partner can improve your device, at times, and also help you
(practical examples and case studies (iTunes, iPhone, Macs))
Lesson III
Striking deals vs. imposing your view of the world
One must concede something, at times. Pissing too many people off at the same time can turn into backlash.
(Guest speech by Mr. Gates and Ballmer)
Lesson IV
Products and services have a purpose.
They are not created only for the pleasure of presenting them at random keynotes worldwide, they actually have to be of some sort of benefit for customers, who will ultimately buy them.
(examples and case studies)
Lesson V
The higher you rise the harder you will fall.
In order to take this course the studend has to prove he/she followed also the course "how to keep your EGO under control"
(Mr Ballmer and Mr Gates will talk about this presenting "Windows and the lawsuits in Europe, how greed can cost much money")
Final essay
The final essay is a practical exam called:
"how to strike a deal with the music industry with not only EGO in mind but also CONSUMERS, without insulting people"
Aww, come on guys, show the UK some love. Even if it can't match iTunes' convenience, I'm gagging to get stuck into this.
Um, it's digital delivery and amazon uk accounts work on .com. I'm not going to buy something to test but i'm guessing you can still use amazonmp3.
I was going by Jan's comment above - "As required by our Digital Content providers, Digital Content will, unless otherwise designated, be available only to customers located in the United States."
As for whether it actually works, goodness knows; I can get to the payment stage, but there's no option to pay by Maestro (a common UK debit card). Only American-branded cards are accepted. Goodness knows if a UK Visa card would work or not. Would be interested to find out, if someone tries it. Either way, it's certainly not designed for UK use.
@ilh
I saw that The Apples in Stereo - Energy is available for free, so anyone could test it from overseas without having to pay anything.
What! There is a way to write 8-tracks now! Sweet! I can finally stop listening to CCR!
http://www.amazon.com/gp/dmusic/help/amd.html/ref=dm_sp_amd/002-4050659-1764854
Amazon MP3 Downloader, shock horror it's got far less handcuffs than iTunes!!!
The electronica selection is a joke but I'm sure that will change in time.
Electronica is a joke. I'm sure that won't change with time.
using it right now, it makes you download an installer (small) and when you choose a CD, there appears to be no cart, its a one click buy it now thing going on (unless im missing something) which isn't too bad. Like someone said earlier, its not as nice as iTunes, but it sure beats the price. Been looking for an older-ish CD, and just bagged it for 6.99. Its def a nice DRM free option to downloading, rather than burning each CD in iTunes and re-ripping. Auto-transfers into iTunes (by default, can be changed). The download is also relatively slow, and my connection (currently 5 down 4 up as per speedtest.net at the moment) isn't what is making it slow. Guess its just busy, as the previews are also choppy. Whoo Beta!
Im also wondering if there is a way to re-download the music if it say, gets lost.
Amazon will def give iTunes a run for its money, at least from me.
As stated in their FAQ, their policy mirrors Apple's in this regard, no redownloads.
Indeed. Amazon has a better product (DRM free mp3s) at a better price. Case in point I was just looking for an album on iTunes but it was AAC - DRM'd. Amazon has the same album as mp3, no DRM, and for .50 cents less. No contest and my money went to Amazon.
I know I can get around the Apple DRM very easily but why on earth should I?
The $0.89 and $0.99 deals are just to suck you into using it, like NBC giving away free shows on Unbox, or like Google Checkout giving you $10 to use it.
Once you're used to it, get ready to start seeing prices on good/new stuff rise. I see $1.99 per "hit" song in the very near future, like say less than 6 months.
First they've got to get you on the hook, then they'll reel you in.
I am sure that's the plan, but it might very well not work out as planned. It's hard to get "hooked" when there's alternatives aka iTunes... ;)
This is a great example of Amazon's competitive advantage. Apple sells music/videos and a few smartly designed pieces of electronics. Amazon sells, literally, everything in the world. I'm positive it's using some of its profits from other retail areas to offset any losses that it might incur on the MP3 side. This will allow it to grab big market share quickly, which will increase volume, which will eventually offset the losses and make the unit profitable. Just look at its cell phone unit. It has amazing deals on cell phones w/ contracts, much better than you get at local carrier stores. Why? Because carriers know that their volume will be so high through Amazon that they can take the short-term hit on hardware costs in exchange for increased subscription fees. Apple may be trying to move in this direction, but it has a long way to go to compete with Amazon on this ground.
256kbps? no story here. Move along people. Move along.
The reason Apple doesn't have a lower price ($0.89) is the music lables. If they are doing this on Amazon, and won't allow Apple to compete, then they are guilty of price fixing in an attempt to damage Apple's iTunes Music Store. And that's illegal. This should be an interesting fight to watch. Apple's lawyers are savvy enough to see what's going on. And they will defend themselves.
Apple fanboys are so blind. Apple is no longer the computer industry underdog with a better product. They are a monopoly of the music industry (still with a better product).
No one here has mentioned that Amazon's incentive may be in hardware sales. Yeah, dethroning Itunes is all well and good. But if Amazon can become a viable alternative for media content, maybe they can convince consumers to start buying alternative hardware (where they could, potentially, get a higher percentage of sales.)
I'm so sick of this argument. "It's not Apple's fault their product is DefectiveByDesign, it's the wicked record labels, movie studios, Telcos, phone networks, forcing them to do it." But they're not the supplier for this customer, Apple is. And if a particular product from Apple is DefectiveByDesign, I won't buy it.
Well, Julian,
You don't have to buy it. But it's the facts. And because you don't like Apple, that's too bad. Apple has made it clear they do not want prices to go up, the labels are furious that Apple is tough on this point. They want DRM-free music. The labels are screaming to make the DRM more restrictive. What part of this make it hard to understand for you?
There are none so blind and those who choose not to see.
As for Market Data's comments, that's true that Amazon wants to stimulate hardware sales. And guess whose hardware is consistently their top sales? Apple's Macs and iPods.
Go figure.
You don't seem to understand the meaning of the term monopoly. They have 70 percent of the MP3 sales. That's NOT a monopoly. They just make a better product. That you can't accept that fact does not change the reality. The same with sales. Apple is #3 in sales of music. That hardly makes them a monopolly. Less than 10 pecent of music on iPods (and 0 perecent on the 30 pcerent of alternative plaers that aren't iPods) is from the ITMS. To call them a monopoly is to say that Red Hat is a monopoly in Linux. They have the lion's share of corporate Linux installs, but it's hardly a monopoly.
What's really a problem here is the anti-Apple fanboys have no shame in throwing around accusations that have no basis in fact, but people give them credibility based on a penchant for cynicism. A shallow approach to life.