Amazon launches DRM-free "Amazon MP3" music downloads
By Joshua Topolsky 
posted September 25th 2007 9:13AM
posted September 25th 2007 9:13AM
posted September 25th 2007 9:13AM
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I guess in Apple fanboy land, logic is not a currency of the masses. Amazon is now offering a competing service to ITMS that has no DRM. But you seem to claim the "music labels" are selling with Amazon in order to hurt ITMS because...
"They [Apple] want DRM-free music. The labels are screaming to make the DRM more restrictive."
Apple wants DRM-free music? Good job there, chief.
Johnathan,
You aren't paying attention. This is the hypicrisy of the labels. They force Apple to keep using DRM, they argue for DRM, and you don't bother reading enough to know that.
There are only two lables with Amazon at this point. One of them also does DRM-free with Apple on the ITMS. They are at a disadvantage to the ITMS, thus they HAVE to have lower prices to take a bite out of the ITMS.
This is basic business practices. That you don't understand them is quite clear. They can't compete with Apple by requiring the competition to be exactly has restrictive as Apple is. They are the market leader. You have to offer something to get customers away.
And JUST like the have done with Apple - be cooperative at first, and then once they have helped Apple's business run well, slap them wiht demands that destroy Apple's business model. And complain when Apple does not accede; run off to another competitor and be all nice and friendly to them, until their business grows to be a real competitor to the ITMS, and then slap them; with demands for DRM, raise the prices and give them a slice of the hardware sales.
This is what has happened to Apple, this will happen to Amazon. I have a friend who works for the music division at Amazon. He's as big an Apple fanboy as I am. He was one of their first people to work on the project. This is how competition takes place. The underdog undercuts the market leader's prices. That's how they build market share. Once they have market share, watch out! The labels will do to Amazon what they're doing to Apple now.
Finally... someone actually builds a digital music service that's got all the right features... and it actually works in *gasp* firefox.
Go amazon, go.
I have a generally picky nature and I did ABX comparisons, so I couldn't tell which source was which. I played the original ripped WAV from CD vs 180K VBR mp3. I sent the output digitally to my Denon Reciever. And did my listening extremely critically using my Paradigm monitor 3 speakers and Koss K80 headphones.
I could not pick out the difference between the WAV and the MP3 at this level. Now this was a decent rate, properly converted MP3. Naturally there is a lot of crap on the internet, but I don't put much stock in people who claim to hear big difference between a properly done 256K MP3 and the original. I seriously doubt more than 1 person in a million has that capability.
256k is 99.9999% good enough, if you are concerned with the other 0.0001% you are generally not going to have a very happy life.
I should also note that many people who claim to hear these big differences, when actually tested in controlled conditions (ABX) can't pick out the difference.
iTunes still has the upper hand in the browsing experience.
Now all we need is a script to take everything in your iTunes Shopping Cart and buy it on Amazon!
This works for Linux users. Just skip the client download and download a fresh MP3 and play it! Hooray. Finally a simple music store that supports Linux users.
And it's Mac-compatible! Nice job! I think it is an interesting idea that they took a page out of eMusic's book by not requiring you to install a humongous media player (unlike the Amazon UnBox crap) but just an mp3 download (aka un-archiver). This is particularly interesting since Amazon was said to be in talks to buy eMusic this year.
If this turns out to be easy to use, it looks like my main source of new music will now be:
1. eMusic for the indie stuff, which I buy mostly.
2. Amazon MP3 for the mainstream, which I sometimes have a weird craving for.
I'm giving it a try now.
USA Only? Booh! So you need an account at the USA version of Amazon.
Anyone spotted any other issues?
What Encoder are they using? It's 256Kb VBR so does that line up with any LAME preset?
No freebies like in their Amazon Download program or iTunes? Oh well. This is a great thing to come along. Steve Jobs, here's one huge competitor to worry about.
The battle of the titans. One this side we have Steve Jobs representing Apple and their money maker the iPod. On the other side we have Jeff Bezos with their movie download program, and now, DRM-free music downloads. Who will win. Let the paying consumers decide.
I love a free market and competition. To hell with monopolies.
allofmp3 is still around.....it's called mp3sparks now.... and I wouldn't pay 99 cents for a compressed song either....I'm getting 320 kps ogg files there for 15 to 25 cents a song
http://mp3sparks.com/
well, 256 might not be GREAT, but it works pretty well for me.. and for .99/.98 cents I can live with it.. I have an iPod but I still never want to be limited to what I can use if I so wish.. just for that , I purchased an album.
Amazon says:
"you agree that you will not redistribute, transmit, assign, sell, broadcast, rent, share, lend, modify, adapt, edit, sub-license or otherwise transfer or use the Digital Content. You are not granted any synchronization, public performance, promotional use, commercial sale, resale, reproduction or distribution rights for the Digital Content."
This means 1) you do not own the copy of the music like you would with a CD your rip yourself. If you own the song, you can sell it to someone (buy a CD at a garage sale).
2) it means you are asked to give up your fair use rights in exchange for your $0.99 (or whatever it is.)
I think I'll stick with buying used CDs, ripping the songs to OGG, and storing the CD in a closet. All of which is legal. I can even legally loan my CD to a friend. I can even play that song as a ring tone on my phone.
Why would I pay $0.99 per song for *less* than I get from a CD at equivalent prices?
Rob Goretsky says: While this is a great step in the right direction, I'd love to see pricing be a bit cheaper. I think this will happen when artists begin to acknowledge that record companies are becoming more and more irrelevant by the day, and that by cutting out the middle-man cost, they can distribute their music directly to their fans in this way, take more of the profit, and charge the fans even less. Comment by Rob Goretsky of Hoboken, NJ
This smells of a how a drug dealer gets you the stuff for free and once you're hooked, then you have to start paying for the items you are now addicted to. Simple minds fall for simple tactics.
Also, why mp3? Seriously, AAC is the way of the future, let's move forward with technology not backwards.
What's next, movie downloads in mpeg2 formats?
That`s all!!! It works fine...
Great catalogue...Many choices....DRM Free....
Democracy is coming to America...
Amazon blows the block!!!!!
"had to install Amazon Downloader app but that was easy enough and has to be done only once"
Sorry, but you're wrong. You DON'T have to install the downloader. It lets you download the song w/o the application. I'm on Linux so any kind of assinine "download managers" are a deal breaker. Even on my Windows machines I refuse to download those apps.
Thanks Amazon for providing a straight through download link and not forcing me to download some junk software.
Just bought "The night chicago died". Been trying to find it on P2P and couldn't get it.
This looks pretty good but isn't a 256kbps MP3 about the same sound quality as a 128kbps AAC file since AAC is the next generation MP3 format. So I don't know how some of you think it's better quality then iTunes's 128kbps format and it can't be better then their 258kbps ACC format. Still looks kinda nice although using a browser still won't appeal to many people.
"...isn't a 256kbps MP3 about the same sound quality as a 128kbps AAC...?"
No. Even Apple only claims that a 128kbps AAC file should sound about as good as a 160kbps MP3 file.
Not only that, this is VBR MP3, while AAC is not. Further creates a quality difference in favor of Amazon.
I just bought a CD from the amazon store. I am super pleased. the first time downloading a cd you have to install the amazon downloader app. it's similar to how emusic works. The quality of the MP3s are excellent. the amazon app adds the songs to iTunes, or WMP automatically it was a super simple process. 1.) find the alubm 2.) click download 3.) plug in my iPod 4.) save 1.00 off iTunes pricing, and it's DRM free.
amazon for the win!
Nice, i have like 5 cpu and 4 ipods at home
oh sure, when allofmp3.com does it, they're illegal, pirates, and must be stopped AT ANY COST! however when amazon (or itunes) does it, it's fine and dandy.
HYPOCRITES!!
I just purchased an album off amazon. I payed 8.99 for it, and am downloading it as I type this over my schools wifi network. The program they use seems small and un-intrusive, and instantly adds the songs into iTunes. The fact that I can download songs LEGALLY and SIMPLY on my mac, and I can use the songs on any media I want makes this a slam dunk for me. I'm sold.
Sigh only open to U.S citizens if other services like 7digital and emusic can offer downloads to the rest of the world why can't Amazon.
...Actually, emusic has had to restrict or block certain songs, depending on the region from which you're visitin.
I hope you go down Steve, I really do.
I've always liked the idea of digital distribution. I've never used ITMS (even though I use iTunes), though, partly because of the DRM. Not sure if Amazon modified their site since previous posts, but I found it pretty easily via 'MP3 Music Downloads' in the left menubar.
I downloaded a few tracks as a test, and it worked pretty well; just clicked the buy button and, after some setup the first time around, the track starts downloading to my desktop (didn't bother getting their downloader app).
I'm sure they will hike the prices soon enough, but as with iTunes, I'm happy to spend a couple of dollars to instantly get tracks I actually care about, rather than having to go out and buy, and then rip, an entire CD.
My ears aren't evolved enough to tell the difference between 256kbps and lossless, honestly.
I like how they feature an Apple product when this is direct competition with Apple. Not only that, they feature an obsolete Apple product. Touché.
"My Iron Lung" (the song on the iPod) is also a really good song.
This could be good.
Does anyone else find it ironic that the #1 most popular single currently being downloaded from Amazon MP3 is the song "1234" by Feist - which is currently being featured in Apple's advertising campaign for its third generation iPod Nano? I guess Apple made it hot ... and then Amazon made it cheap at just 89 cents. Funny.
I never spent a cent on any service let alone Apple`s , but now that it is DRM free I`m going on Amazon and spending some money just to show them this is what we want.
I have bought at iTMS, but basically only "plus" albums that are DRM free. So far in browsing the three stores ( iTMS, Amazon, and Amazon MP3 ) the store that is coming out cheapest for me is iTMS with most tracks being DRM free as well. Funny enough the second cheapest is Amazon with it's own download service being more expensive than it's own CD service for new albums.
I'm hoping that 256kbps mp3 sound significantly better than 192kbps mp3 since I could easily pick out an mp3 at 192, but I can't pick out aac distortions above 160.
I work for tunetribe.com, based in the UK and we have been offering DRM free downlaods at 320 kbps for a long time, as have other stores - with no watermarking.
It saddens me that the Amazon store is being touted as the only DRM free download store when there are many independents who have been doing this for years - we have also had the Trojan Catalogue DRM free, 320 kbps MP3 format for a year!
WOW ... Engadget is usually the shill all things Apple site. I'm surprised they allowed so many posts that didn't totally praise Apple and Steve Jobs.
Amazon boasts about having the largest catalog of DRM-free MP3s, but MusicGiants has the largest catalog of DRM-free lossless downloads. What a huge difference! Without DRM you can have the best sounding digital music that sounds phenomenal on your home audio system and can still be delivered onto your portable devices. Finally, some full resolution digital downloads.
I love the fact the DAP right behind the iPod is a Zune. Based on popularity? Nope, just a nice middle finger to the Cupertino gang.
MP3 has NO DRM protection.
MP3s have NO DRM restrictions
Definitely a big step in the right direction, but I'm still waiting for a legit version of allofmp3.com--I'd pay .50 or so a song if they could hook that up.
A good move . . .but this will hardly put a dent in iTUNES' market share. Without the Hardware, Amazon is iTUNES without the iPOD. The best thing about iTUNES is the podcasts and compatibility and free stuff and sync-ability--I don't see how amazon could compete with that.
Robert
http://cdbabypodcast.com
There is a website that searches over 6,000,000 Non-DRM tracks (not including AmazonMP3, which it says its adding soon) all at once - www.songboxx.com. With the addition of AmazonMP3, you'll probably be able to always find what you want DRM-free.
Heh "pigapolist" site launching DRM-free music portal, and charge $0.99 per track? Why don't just by whole DRM-Free album at Fiesta where price per track is only $0.10?
Why did I not see this one coming:
"Please note that Amazon MP3 is currently only available to US customers"
Actually I did.
"Please also note that because you live in Britain the British Government, the companies that sell to you and everyone in between will expect you to pay costs for your music that in the end will mean that you're paying at least double of what was an artificially inflated price to start with".
It's like when I was looking at 'Heroes' on Amazon UK. Look on Amazon.co.uk "We expect you to pay more than £40 for the first season". Look on Amazon.com "We are sorry but we aren't allowed to sell you this in the UK because the Nazis in the music and film industry still want to charge you a ridiculous amount of money for your music, film and TV". Fortunately we have the nice grey-market which is Amazon Marketplace where American sellers can make a $5-$10 profit and still save us $15-$20. You just have to pray hard that Customs don't sting you or you might end up paying more than the UK price. This really gets me.