Review: Amazon’s MP3 store
UDPATE: Just read this on DF but Amazon has obliged Radiohead and is only selling their albums, not individual songs. Nice! Go Amazon!
Huh, so Amazon just launched their MP3 store. I’ve been curious about how it’d be, Unbox - as awful and exclusionary as it is made me wonder how Amazon’s execution would be for MP3. I need not have worried, the two labels on Amazon (EMI and Universal) are going the DRM free route, so Amazon was free to make their system as good as they wanted it to be. Unencumbered by DRM it lives up to my high expectations for the boys in Seattle.
The main drawback to their MP3 store is the lack of content, with only those two labels right now they’ve got 2 million songs vs. iTunes 6 million. Still, it’s a lot of songs. Hopefully they’ll start working with the many smaller labels that would like to get their stuff up DRM free - which Apple still is denying, despite the DRM free tracks they currently sell. This is an honest to goodness competitor to the iTMS.
I’m a url typing kinda guy, so I was sad to see that typing in amazon.com/mp3 brought me to an mp3 player store, amazon.com/music brings you to their cd store - couldn’t figure out a shortcut to go directly to the mp3 store. Sigh. But having got there you’re presented with a very reasonable interface to these, there’s a scrollable view of new and notable albums and then the today’s top songs and albums, featured songs and albums, etc… you can browse by genre and subgenre. Searching all happens very reasonably, it’s as good as searching for anything else in Amazon is.
The interface lets you preview the song right there. I love it, you press the play button next to a track or preview all at the top and it goes through the snippets. I have always hated, HATED, their interface for previewing songs for cds. Why do I need to decide what format the preview should be in? Why does it pop up a window? Why doesn’t it ever actually work on my computer? But this format just works, exactly the way you expect it to, I could care less if this was windows media, quicktime or real - it’s a preview for the love of all that is good and holy. I just want to hear it.
The big question was now buying and downloading. I was nervous about this, but needlessly so. You download the Amazon Downloader app (mac friendly!) and then you can 1-click your way through single songs or entire albums. The Downloader fires up, you can watch the progress and in the end somehow it ended up in iTunes without me even doing anything. I don’t know how it knew or if you were using something else if it would figure it all out, but for me, it pretty much could not have been easier and that includes using the iTunes music store. The only real difference is that it isn’t in the “recently purchased” tab in iTunes and you end up with two copies of the MP3’s on your drive since iTunes makes it’s own copy.
Also the pricing is cheaper, the album I bought was $7.99 (individually each track was $.89). The format was 256 kbps for those who know of such things. My lame ears probably can’t tell the difference between that and 128 kbps on my iMac speakers. And the downloads were fast despite that. Surprisingly fast, although I didn’t time them or nothin.
The MP3 store is also tied in with the cd music search, so if you’re looking over cds and are on an album that is in the MP3 store, there’s a big link in there that says so. Which is convenient. This also brings up a big difference in the interface, the MP3 store is much more song and artist centric (as opposed to be album focused). I guess it makes sense, since apparently people like to buy individual songs, but I’m still sad about the impending death of the perfectly composed album. I love Radiohead even more for staying off iTunes in order to keep the integrity of their album intact.
In any event, Amazon’s entry into the MP3 market is a very strong one. The first reasonable competitor to iTunes that I’ve seen - it’s cheaper than iTunes and just as easy to use cross platforms. It’s a smaller library for sure, but it’s DRM freeness is sure to attract adherents. I’ll definitely be looking for music on Amazon probably before iTMS, just might not find it is all. I really hope they start pulling in the smaller labels who are willing to go DRM free.
Apple’s gotta keep on it’s toes! Yay for competition.
September 25th, 2007 at 11:29 pm
I’m totally more likely to use this than iTunes or eMusic or Allofmp3.
It is really weird there’s no straight url for the thing. This seems to work, though:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/browse/-/163856011
I also totally prefer it when you start your blog posts with “huh”, rather than “ok” or “so”. Keep bringing back the “huh”!
September 26th, 2007 at 6:35 am
I’m with you, Amazon will probably be the first store I check. Plus, they’ll probably get me with their damn recommendation emails, too. I totally fall for that stuff.
As for the URL, yeah, it has a consistent url - just not one I can remember and type. :)
And regarding my blog starting phrases - you seem to be under the impression that I use these phrases willy nilly. Oh no, my friend. Each has a very nuanced and subtle distinction which sets the entire tone of the piece - there’s no decision making involved - it is simply the way it must be.
;)