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Amazon MP3 Store to Go Global in 2008
Posted by
Soulskill
on Sunday January 27, @10:17AM
from the and-in-this-corner dept.
from the and-in-this-corner dept.
Amazon announced in a press release today their plans to sell DRM-free music worldwide through the Amazon MP3 store beginning later this year. This news is being viewed by some as the latest volley in Amazon's digital music sales war with Apple's iTunes. Since Amazon has completed its plans to offer DRM-free music from all four major record labels (most recently, Sony and Warner), the global availability of the MP3s can only be excellent news for customers.
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Warner Music Group Drops DRM for Amazon 167 comments
SirLurksAlot sends us to Ars Technica for an article about the Warner Music Group's decision to allow DRM-free music downloads through Amazon. This reversal of Warner's former position has been underway for some time, and it boosts the number of DRM-free songs available from Amazon to 2.9 million. Quoting:
"Warner's announcement says nothing about offering its content through other services such as iTunes, and represents the music industry's attempt to make life a bit more difficult for Apple after all the years in which the company held the keys to music's digital kingdom.
[+]
Your Rights Online: Sony Announces DRM-Free Music at Amazon 293 comments
sehlat brings us a New York Times report that Sony has agreed to start selling DRM-free music from Amazon's MP3 store. This comes days after Sony revealed plans for physical MusicPass cards that would allow DRM-free access to a small portion of Sony's library. Now that all four major record labels are on board with Amazon, some are expecting Apple to make moves away from DRM as well. From the NYTimes:
"Sony's partnership with Amazon.com also underscores the music industry's gathering effort to nurture an online rival to Apple, which has sold more than three billion songs through its iTunes store. Most music purchased on iTunes can be played only on Apple devices, and Apple insists on selling all single tracks for 99 cents. Amazon, which sells tracks for anywhere from 89 cents to over a dollar, offers the pricing variability the labels want."
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
It's about time... (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:It's about time... (Score:5, Insightful)
Not since iTunes broke Linux compatibility. Count me in as another customer sitting here with a pile of cash waiting them to actually let me buy from them. And more competition in the market is a good thing, anyway.
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The current iTunes Plus (i.e. DRM-free and higher bitrate) tracks are $1.29, and Apple will upgrade existing tracks that are now available as DRM-free for 30 cents, the difference in price. So Amazon is a much better deal, but if you already have music f
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Now I buy used stuff from Amazon Marketplace, rip, and sell it again. Maybe it's almost as legally dubious as downloading, but to me it's more convenient.
Re:It's about time... (Score:5, Informative)
- Assuming whatever I want is already available, it's often less hassle than tracking down songs via P2P (in rarer cases) and waiting for them to become available from a single uploader, and
- If it's a known-bitrate transfer from a known existing source, it also saves me wasted time "auditioning" which version to keep from various downloaded copies (some of which are better quality than others)
OTOH, iTunes isn't "perfect" quality either though. I've had stuff downloaded from them (which I couldn't find on P2P anyway) which had digital "clicks" in it. Actually, I've even had minor digital pops/clicks in quite a few CDs I've bought (they remained even when played back on different players. It's not like it was a recent loudness-compressed let's-get-this-recording-to-the-16-bit-volume-limit release either, I had this problem with the 1994 reissue of Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon".). So it's possible that either iTunes had bad error-compensation when ripping from the CD source and/or that a major non-correctable flaw was present on the CD *or* that the CD's master itself was flawed.In either case, WTF is going on there? I don't expect digital flaws- even minor ones- on stuff from iTunes, and I certainly don't expect them on my CDs!
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* Assuming whatever I want is already available, it's often less hassle than tracking down songs via P2P (in rarer cases) and waiting for t
Re:It's about time... (Score:4, Insightful)
No, I'm a genius. IQ is over 160.
If you don't like the MPAA why are you listening to their music?
Because it's not their property, it's my culture. I don't recognize their claim to it.
You're inventing crazy reasons to keep on stealing.
First off, duplicating is not stealing. Stealing is when you take a physical object that is someone elses personal posession. And secondly, my actions are not crazy, they are tactically sound means of working towards my goals.
And I mean literally crazy, you come off as a paranoid schizophrenic.
I'm not paranoid. I'm actively attempting to subvert and sabotage the critical infrastructure of my enemies, and they are after me. It's not like I'm the only one. Maybe some day you'll join us. Then we can all afford to sing as one.
Re:It's about time... (Score:5, Insightful)
Citing an IQ figure as proof of genius only demonstrates idiocy of the highest order.
Why's it tagged that? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Why's it tagged that? (Score:5, Funny)
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Every article on the front page... (Score:5, Funny)
Does every single Slashdot article need to be tagged with "What could possibly go wrong?" I mean, seriously, what could possibly go wrong here?
Re:Every article on the front page... (Score:5, Funny)
Oh, sorry, you said "what could possibly go wrong." Yeah, nothing really.
*hides from Apple zealots*
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What could possibly go right? (Score:5, Interesting)
Music industry starts selling DRM-free mp3, stopping its decline and saving the RIAA for the next clueless battle.
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you can use this service but be warned, global price fixing by the RIAA/IFPI is being utilised denying any credit transactions that originate from a card outside your own territory, just as they fixed it with iTunes and forced apple to impleme
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Tags are the distilled essence of smart ass commentary. Rather than waste time rehashing a tired point, now you can just type "whatcouldpossiblygowrong" and move on. Time saving at its finest!
It is very fitting that this tag has become the most popul
When is it going to happen (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:When is it going to happen (Score:5, Informative)
You are aware that the DRM-free Amazon MP3 store is already up and running, aren't you? I've bought about four albums' worth of music from it since the store launched months ago. The news here is only that Amazon MP3 will be opening internationally.
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I imagine that the hold up isn't on the technology side. I imagine that most of the difficulty is on the legal end.
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I wouldn't worry about it. I have a friend who has a complete Beatles collection on LPs, and from what I've heard, you're not missing much.
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Yer welcome.
The OP's issue is an interesting one, and is illustrative of the many issues concerning on-line distribution of music. That said, I can't help b
No more payment options at mp3sparks (Score:2)
Linux support (Score:5, Interesting)
eMusic also requires that you download their application, but they offer a nice GUI-based app for Linux. They even claim that it runs on a 2.2.14 kernel! Their selection isn't as good, and their business model is different (subscription vs. per download), but it's worth taking a look.
If nothing, email Amazon and ask for a Linux downloader. Mentioning eMusic ought to help get them moving in the right direction.
Re:Linux support (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=200154260 [amazon.com]
If you use Linux, you can currently buy individual songs. A Linux version of the Amazon MP3 Downloader is under development, and when released will allow entire album purchases.
Though not very well supported, the Windows downloader works in Wine
http://mad-scientist.us/amazon.html [mad-scientist.us]
You said it, Chewie! (Score:2, Insightful)
I guess it won't be there much
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Yes, it does cost twice as much in the UK (Score:2)
Amazon has a staff, pays lawyers, runs some ops, etc in the UK.
They have to charge a lot more.
Dollars have become Ban
Can't believe it! (Score:3, Interesting)
Steve Jobs claimed a while back that he didn't like DRM, and had to do it because of the labels. Now we have Amazon selling true MP3s for all four major labels. So where's Steve?
Wow, could it be that he really wants DRM to lock people into iTunes and the iPod? Nahhhhh, not our Steve! He'd NEVER do that! Maybe he's just not as crafty as Amazon.
Re:Can't believe it! (Score:5, Insightful)
Based on what I've read, I think the record companies are trying to avoid a situation where iTunes has a monopsony in the (wholesale) market for digital music. If iTunes is the only reseller of digital music then Apple has a lot of bargaining power in price negotiations and will be able to pay the labels a low price.
By not allowing Apple to sell tracks DRM free while at the same time allowing stores like Amazon to do so, they allow the other stores to gain market share and catch up a little with Apple. Then no one buyer has the entire market and the record labels can retain some price setting power.
Re:Can't believe it! (Score:5, Interesting)
Steve is right where he said he would be. For labels such as EMI that have agreed to license DRM-free music to iTunes, Steve is carrying that music under the iTunes Plus label.
Most of the labels that have started licensing DRM-free music to Amazon are refusing to license it to Apple. This is their big fuck-you to Steve Jobs to try and break the iTunes Store 'monopoly'.
And unlike everything else the record companies have ever done in the digital space, this has a chance of working. I put off using Amazon for a long time because I didn't want to install their downloader, but once I did I was hooked.
Amazon is selling music at reasonable prices. Their store is more convenient to use than BitTorrent, and the music is of a consistently higher quality than what I can get off of Pirate Bay.
Look, ma, I'm paying for all of my music again!
Steve Jobs: Thoughts on Music (Score:3, Informative)
http://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughtsonmusic/ [apple.com]
Thoughts on Music
Steve Jobs
February 6, 2007
...
"The third alternative is to abolish DRMs entirely. Imagine a world where every online store sells DRM-free music encoded in open licensable form
This isn't a sales war between Amazon and Apple (Score:4, Informative)
What would really be good for customers would be if the labels let everyone sell DRM free music, including Apple, and let the consumer decide where they want to buy their music in a real free-market sales war.
I'll Be Sticking With My All-You-Can-Eat Sub (Score:2)
For $15/month, I can download all the music I want. If I stop paying, the music will stop working after 3 months. For som
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Is this for real? So you have to pay $1
Amazon's service is good (Score:3, Interesting)
Buying music online is a good deal, if you can back it up and enjoy it over a long time period.
I wouldn't get too excited about this folks,,, (Score:3, Informative)
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Re:Will any of them ever match AllOfMp3's prices? (Score:4, Insightful)
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What makes you think music corporations should or could work any differently from any other industry? No industry reaches a point where they have "earned their profits". W
Re:Will any of them ever match AllOfMp3's prices? (Score:5, Insightful)
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Ooh, burn.
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Re:Will any of them ever match AllOfMp3's prices? (Score:5, Insightful)
No, because unlike AllOfMp3 these stores are operating according to U.S. (or similar) law; and more importantly to me, purchases from Amazon MP3, iTunes Plus, et al. result in the artists actually getting paid for their work. (Yes, I know, "the evil record labels don't pay their artists that much anyway, blah blah blah"... but if an artist is in a bad contract, at least it's an arrangement that he or she voluntarily entered into; AllOfMp3, on the other hand, is profiting off these artists' work without any compensation or agreement. If you give a crap about your favorite musicians, you don't buy their stuff from AllOfMp3.)
Amazon MP3's quality is good, better than iTunes but not quite on par with iTunes Plus. Tracks are encoded with LAME 3.97 at a high VBR bitrate (~230 kbps or so?). The collection is still a tiny bit spotty, but growing fast. It certainly has a better selection than iTunes Plus does, by a long shot. All things considered, it's an excellent service.
My biggest pet peeve with Amazon MP3 is that while you can purchase individual songs through the standard Amazon web interface, purchasing whole albums (and thereby receiving the album discount, where applicable) requires the Amazon MP3 Downloader. On the plus side, this program seems well-written, can pause downloads or resume interrupted ones, automatically imports your songs into iTunes or other MP3 players' libraries, and doesn't behave suspiciously. But why should it be necessary? The downloader is currently available for OS X and Windows, and a Linux version is "forthcoming".