Amazon MP3 Store to Go Global in 2008

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.

Re:When is it going to happen

[Niten]

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.

Re:Linux support

[RedK]

The Linux version of the downloader is in the works :

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]

Re:Every article on the front page...

[im just cannonfodder]

well.......

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 implement regional price fixing.


The BPI Are: SONY, UNIVERSAL, WARNER GROUP, EMI.

The RIAA Soundexchange Are: SONY, UNIVERSAL, WARNER GROUP, EMI.

The IFPI Are: The Same A$$ Holes Like 1 ring to control them all.

The MPAA Are: SONY, UNIVERSAL, WARNER GROUP, DISNEY, PARAMOUNT, FOX.

This isn't a sales war between Amazon and Apple

[RalphBNumbers]

It's a sales war between Universal/Warner/Sony and Apple, Amazon is just the labels' chosen weapon.

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.

Re:It's about time...

[Dogtanian]

Sweet! Now I'll be able to download all the music you buy off P2P networks for free! Like I'm ever paying copyright companies for digital media files. I'd rather burn my money.

Disregarding the moral issues on either side of the argument, two reasons I'd pay for music downloads are that

• 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!

Re:It's about time...

[Anonymous Coward]

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 from iTMS, then the upgrade price will be cheaper. Click on the "iTunes Plus" link in the store and you should see a button in the upper left to upgrade if any tracks are available.

Having tried the Amazon MP3 service, I see no reason to continue buying from iTMS, except perhaps for artists that Amazon doesn't have yet. 256 kps MP3 is good enough for me, and plays everywhere. The Amazon Downloader even handles the download queue and automatically inserts the tracks into your iTunes library. iTunes Plus has poor selection, and my portable player can't do AAC anyway, so this avoids a transcoding step for me as well.

So I would say, aside from upgrading existing tracks, you should drop iTMS like a bad habit.

Re:It's about time...

[NineNine]

If you have a pile of cash waiting, you might want to consider going to your *LOCAL* CD store, buying CD's, and ripping them any way you want. It's cheaper, faster, easier, and you contribute to your local economy.

Re:Will any of them ever match AllOfMp3's prices?

[boldie]

Well, the creators of the music gets LESS than the credit card company per download. A Swedish artist sad in an interview that he got Euro 0.03 ($0.044) per download on itunes (price per dl ~Euro 1). That was not nearly enough to make a living on. To him it did'nt matter if the song were downloaded on p2p or itunes.

Non the less, this is good news!

I wouldn't get too excited about this folks,,,

[Jeeproxx]

I work for the CMRRA (Canadian Musical Reproduction Rights Agency), we are the ones who handle music publishing in Canada. Period. The reality is that this is mostly a move to stimulate sales but not a long term reality. The vast majority of higher selling (charting) product will continued to be delivered with DRM protection. It only stands to reason. Everybody in the music industry realizes that DRM is nothing but a 'speed bump' and not a long term solution to meeting their goals. The reality is, despite the Sony rootkit fiasco, the future will bring either more invasive software at the consumer level or more control at the ISP level. Trust me... I am a not happy about this, I am not impressed with many of the actions of the RIAA and WIPO but this is the reality. You are looking at an entire industry collapsing.... and fast. They are fighting for their very exsistance and loosing. The money is gone. It will very soon be harder and harder for artists to have access to the funds to successfully produce and market their music in the conventional format. Physical distribution will not be consistant... and films are next. You can keep making 400 million dollar movies when you can't make more the 250 million back. It just not sustainable. Things will continue on, however, in a far different model. The problem is that no one can forsee the emerging buisness model and how to transition into this model. Open Source software will replace conventional digital tools for media editing (since the art and beauty of analogue has already died) and do so quite well. Online distribution, which will endup enduring harsh filtering and monitoring. We have brought this on ourselves. I don't agree with ISP filtering/monitoring, root kit technologies, or suing of endusers. I have watched my friends loose their jobs, one after the other for too long. Studios closing left and right, labels laying off staff year after year, great musicians not getting the finances they need because there isn't enough to go around and they haven't got enough "Bling". Last year, for every 32 artist that got signed, only two of those made money, a couple more would break even, and the rest lost money. Record companies are the agencies which provide the funding and marketing resources where conventional banks won't. It all soo sad. I love music. I've invested years of my life and 10's of thousands of dollars on education and equipment. Now I'm back in school at night studying programming and network administration. Perhaps if people took a minute to realize that by not paying for the music they are starving artist, engineers, producers.... people who have worked in the industry for 20 and 30 years are finding themselves at 50 yrs old and having to try and find some sort of job to continue feeding their families. My heart goes out to the 2000+ people who are loosing their jobs with EMI. PLEASE... TAKE A MINUTE TO CONSIDER THE FACTS. Don't let the fat paycheques of the CEO's and ignorant lawsuits of the RIAA blind your eyes to the realities being endured by thousands of people who work hard to make the music you listen to.

Re:It's about time...

[webmaster404]

How is it cheaper? Usually on a CD there is only 1-3 songs that I really want, with a CD I pay anywhere from $10-20 for that CD with around 15 songs, compare that with $.99 per song and I spend around $1-3 rather then $15, so no its not cheaper. On around a 1 MB per second connection downloading an average 4 MB song takes me around 4-10 seconds, unless you live right next to a store it is not faster. When it is an open format such as MP3 and can be played on almost any device, DRM free, it can be played on a Linux/Windows/Mac/BSD computer, a generic MP3 player, burnt to a CD, or whatever, so it isn't easier. As for contributing to the local economy, just go to local concerts and support local bands.

Steve Jobs: Thoughts on Music

[bgspence]

Here's his position:
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 formats. In such a world, any player can play music purchased from any store, and any store can sell music which is playable on all players. This is clearly the best alternative for consumers, and Apple would embrace it in a heartbeat. If the big four music companies would license Apple their music without the requirement that it be protected with a DRM, we would switch to selling only DRM-free music on our iTunes store. Every iPod ever made will play this DRM-free music."

...

"Convincing them to license their music to Apple and others DRM-free will create a truly interoperable music marketplace. Apple will embrace this wholeheartedly."

Re:It's about time...

[iamstretchypanda]

Try MyFairTunes [hymn-project.org]. It will let you strip the DRM out of your itunes library without a loss in quality. From the hymn-project.org website on why to use their software: "To demonstrate your belief in the principles of fair-use under copyright law." Beautiful.