Amazon: 6 million DRM-free songs on T-Mobile G1
By Thomas Ricker 
posted September 23rd 2008 8:40AM
posted September 23rd 2008 8:40AM
posted September 23rd 2008 8:40AM
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Are you guys lame or wut. Nobody but brainwashed engadget readers really care about DRM, the majority of users dont even know what it is and what it does. Android is nothing and never will be.....they have one..yes ONE freaking phone out, and out comes the fanboyz and wannabees with 1-0 google / amazon apple-apple 0 i mean, are you serious ladies. Apple couldent care less about it. Just because it is google you are all coming in your small boy panties, but lets get real here. All their freaking apps are in Beta, and there UELA´s are out of this world. You have great objections towards Apple´s DRM (which is none of apple´s fault), but you dont mind about Google getting all of your personal information etc. Get a grip ladies.
"You have great objections towards Apple´s DRM (which is none of apple´s fault)"
LOL! Ass.
Take your Johnny Apple-Seed Mentality somewhere else. We're tired of fruit based trolls on this blog.
You should care about Apple's DRM if you own any non-Apple devices. Try streaming those DRM'd music files to anything other than an AppleTV. Try putting them on a cell phone other than the iPhone. If Amazon can offer the same music as iTunes, at lower prices, without DRM, then you're damn right I'm going to blame Apple for it.
You're pretty gullible if you think Apple can't do anything about it. That DRM is in place by their choice, to lock people in to their iTunes ecosystem of devices with no way out.
So you think that because the Music Industry hates Apple, they allow other stores to sell music DRM free but Apple isn't allowed too? Because that is what you are saying when it isn't Apples fault that they don't have (a large selection) of DRM free content. Android has one phone ok... there will be more guaranteed, Apple has how many..... O yeah ONE phone too. You can't honestly say that iTunes Store is better than Amazons because they have more DRM therefore Amazon and WinMo would be better than Apple + iTunes.
Mike the majority of posters have basically complained about DRM how can you say most don't know what it is? Anyone who has bought music post the year 2000 has had to fight with DRM.
I haven't been that excited about Android, but adding a serious content-provider like Amazon to the equation makes it a lot more interesting...
This is disappointing that OTA downloads aren't supported. I don't get why this is so hard to do! Nevertheless, I'm happy for more competition and as an iPhone user, I hope this pushes Apple to make their offering even better as well.
Seriously, what's it with US providers that they are so terrified of
data downloads?
First no bluetooth tethering on the iPhone, now no music downloads on
the G1 over 3G.
Here in Austria providers are pushing datacards like mad, even
3G-WiFi routers as a DSL replacement for homes (because data
contracts are pretty much the only way to grow when everybody already
has a phone contract). I think the cheapest contract right now is
16€/Month for 15GB data (3Data fair), or 9€ for 3GB. "3" also
offers unlimited mobile TV-over-HSDPA with every contract, surely
using a lot of bandwidth.
So, whats the problem in the US? The only thing I could find from
AT&T is 60$ (+tax, I suppose) for 5Gb, hidden deep down on the
website.
the best thing about this is that apple HAS to respond with something that can compete with this.
No. They really don't.
No 3G downloads means that Apple can sit back and watch T-mobile suck on a cock (and I mean male chicken here).
Apple will respond, if this succeeds. There is a great deal of room for failure. Regulation of the content that runs on a phone is absolutely necessary as a means of quality control over the phones hardware, the network it runs on, and a host of other reasons (not the least of which is litigation from PT owners). Then you got the laundry list of bad, ineffective apps (does anybody remember that big reason Atari fell?)
Then there is the problem with multiple platforms. Google Docs wouldn't even run on more than firefox and the older version of IE when it first came out. It ran badly in safari, even worse in Opera, and about the same in Mozilla, and that doesn't even count the other browsers out there like Shiva. Now, I'm suppose to believe that they are going to get this to work on multiple hardware devices (not even simple front end software). I'll believe it when I see it. It would be surprising if this thing isn't buggy as hell when it first comes out, as in worse than iPhone 2.0 update.
This launch will of course be biased in the positive direction, considering the negative bias there is online against apple presently (that for some odd reason started with the iPhone 2.0 update for some reason, hmm), it's only natural. Hopefully this competition is worthy, and not falsely appreciated.
Weird, Ive never had a "regulated" smartphone and its worked very nicely with whatever I've done to it.
Also, when the f**k is Amazon getting their international sh*t together?
what kinda storage is the phone going to have?
put this on the n95 now
I run squeezecenter at home. It lets me browse and download any song I own from my N95 and N78 from anywhere, anytime. That means on 3G, not this crippled garbage. The N95 has symtorrent and symella available also just to let you know. You could also use ORB or Twonkymedia server. You have options. Not this crippleware.
No downloads on 3G. Talk about negating the purpose.
Yeah, the #1 music retailer in the US is shaking in their boots over this.
:rolleyes:
Yeah...because no company ever rises to beat (or at least change) the market leader.
If enough people find out about Amazon's better model, they'll move over to it.
Amazon has done very, very well to get in the music space. Love their business model so far - they just need more labels to hop on board. The trick is coaxing the big labels that sans-DRM is good for them too. A lot of the execs at top companies remain exceedingly ignorant of the needed change in music sales offerings for the digital age.
Since the MP3 store is also a web application, I wonder if you'll be able to purchase tracks using Androids browser in addition to the standalone app? This would allow you to download tracks while connected via 3G and not wifi (Take that, RIAA!!)
Is there anything Google can't do?
All of you guys who complain about Apple's DRM need to remember that if it were up to Apple, none of the music content of the iTunes music store would be DRM'ed. Steve Jobs has already said so in his Open Letter published months ago. The issue has always been the music companies. First they didn't want to do electronic downloads at all since it would screw up their business model with CDs. When that was untenable, they tried onerous DRM schemes with a few manufacturers before Apple finally convinced most of them to try a less restrictive approach. That worked extremely well and it spawned a whole new way for people to buy most, if not all, of their music.
But for the music companies, it worked too well in one respect. It made Apple the dominate player by far in this new market, mirroring the success they had with selling iPods. All of a sudden they had put more power into one vendor's hands then they had ever done before. For some perspective, before the iTunes Store the music industry used to always gripe about Wal-Mart, which had 20% of the CD marketplace and demanded tough terms for both the music industry and the artists (in the artist's case, often creative restrictions). Now the iTunes store had 70+% of all legal downloads and the marketplace was shifting fast to downloads versus CDs.
So the music industry has been trying to create a suitable rival for iTunes for some time. Most of them have failed miserably due to poor software interfaces, lack of titles and artists or no iPod integration (and Apple was not about to help on that front). Only Amazon's store has gotten any traction due to the fact that the record industry chose to let them go completely DRM free in order to attract business away from Apple. Amazon also made it easier for iPod owners to integrate Amazon purchases into their iTunes library.
So all of you that complain about Apple's DRM, I say to you that your anger is misplaced. Blame the recording industry. One thing for sure is that the recording industry can't do what they are doing with Amazon forever, meaning allowing them to do DRM free while Apple must do DRM on the majority of their library. The recording industry started this as "an experiment", but they cannot continue this long term without raising the ire of the Federal Trade Commission for treating customers differently in the marketplace. Apple is being patient about this right now, but their patience will run thin soon if the recording industry doesn't change their sales policies.
Thank go that Apple offers DRM-Free songs to be transferred to their devics!
Here's a question. How do you get the Amazon tracks off the G1 without desktop sync?
I seriously think this device is targeting me. I use Google, I use Amazon MP3, and I'm still on T-Mobile.
Amazon: 6 million DRM-free songs on T-Mobile G1
And no headphone jack!
I'm jus trying to sign up....but I herd its the best