Amazon DRM-Free Music Store Goes Beta 349
LowSNR writes "Amazon this morning moved their DRM-free music store into open beta. According to the release, 'Since all our digital music downloads are DRM-free, you can play them on anything that plays mp3s including PCs, Macs(tm), iPods(tm), Zunes(tm), Zens(tm), iPhones(tm), RAZRs(tm), and BlackBerrys. Plus, our Amazon MP3 Downloader application makes it easy to add your downloads to iTunes(tm) and Windows Media Player(tm), so you can sync up your devices or burn your music to CD hassle-free.' Not to mention Linux." Of course, without DRM few of the major labels play with them.
Store in beta? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Store in beta? (Score:4, Funny)
True, however ... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:True, however ... (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:True, however ... (Score:4, Interesting)
The labels would probably dump online retailers and sell the music themselves, except that it would open up an antitrust can of worms. That, and it would also involve real work on their part...
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Think of the iTunes/Starbucks/iPhone/TouchPod as the next step in this evolution.
Apple's iTunes cut the stores and delivery middlemen out of the process.
Starbucks started its own label and signed some pretty big names to it, cutting out the traditional big record companies.
Then the wireless free iPhone/iPod
Re:True, however ... (Score:5, Interesting)
-Ted
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:True, however ... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:True, however ... (Score:4, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
*shrug* Seems this might be what he meant.
Re:True, however ... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:True, however ... (Score:5, Informative)
Sounds good! And I just spotted an album I want at about half the UK CD/iTunes price. But then I clicked on the T&C and got:
'5. Territorial Restrictions
As required by our Digital Content providers, Digital Content will, unless otherwise designated, be available only to customers located in the United States.'
Cheers. If I'm lucky it'll soon be available on this side of the pond at the usual 1 USD = 1 GBP exchange rate for 'digital content'...
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:True, however ... (Score:5, Funny)
Shipping costs, ya know.
Re: Useful, Only If You're A Resident Of the U.S.A (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:True, however ... (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
As soon as they call a cease-fire in the loudness war, I'll start buying mainstream media again. Until then, I'm stuck paying twice as much for the rare releases on SACD/DVD-A/vinyl. Even then you have to be careful because sometimes you'll end up with basically a rip from a CD onto a hi-def format. And I still regularly buy CDs that were mixed pre-2000. Even a -9 dB RMS isn't horrible, as long as it's not clipped.
Beyond that, I'll never buy a lossy format now that lossless exists. We have the bandwidth, w
One of these labels includes Universal... (Score:2)
Is Universal going to start crying again about only getting 70% of the sale and then pick up its marbles and go home?
Great! (Score:2)
Now how about non-DRM Unbox downloads?
Re: (Score:2)
" Zunes" (Score:5, Funny)
don't be so sure... someone would had to have actually BOUGHT one of these in order to make sure they can play mp3s.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
I saw somewhere recently that the Zune is now available in white. That has the possibility of increasing market share by appealing to prospective iPod buyers, or generating sales by increasing the chances of error.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re:" Zunes" (Score:5, Funny)
eMusic (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah... I've been meaning to check out eMusic, actually. The latest Popular Science magazine included a coupon code on an inserted "post card" type ad, saying it was good for 25 free songs on sign-up or something like that. Hard to complain about 2+ albums worth of free songs just to take a look at it, I figure.
eMusic rocks. I usually end up using my 75 downloads by the end of the first week, plus a few off my booster pack* to finish off an album. The tracks are LAME-encoded, all VBR. Most songs I download average around 200bps.
* Subscription downloads expire at the end of the month. You can buy "booster packs" to download more than your subscription provides (ie, to finish downloading an album), and they last for a year.
If you want to check out what they have, just go here: http://www.emusic.com/browse/all.h [emusic.com]
Re:eMusic (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:eMusic (Score:5, Informative)
Worst part is that they require a subscription and you can't buy a single track like you apparently can with Amazon without paying for the month. You are correct that their library is limited and while, for now, it seems you must download some sort of application to do mass downloading from Amazon, you can purchase single tracks without it.
I really don't care for eMusic adding a tagline to your user agent when surfing. I really don't need people knowing which music service I use:
(Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.1) Gecko/20061204 Firefox/2.0.0.1 eMusic DLM/4.0a5_1.0b1"
Re:eMusic (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
But, unless you do a lot of hunting, you're always going to be left with only enough money for single tracks here and there. When you're a strict album purchaser like I am, you get screwed with this type of service. You also have to cancel the service if you don't want it any longer which is an added hassle that you don't have with iTunes and Amazon
Re: (Score:2)
Actually, I believe you can buy single tracks now. The subscription service is cheaper though.
Re: (Score:2)
You should actually read about something before making a comment like that; several reviews pointed out (and I can confirm, having tried it with both a single track and a full album) that Amazon includes the album art with the tracks, and their downloader app will automatically import your new tracks into iTunes.
Plus, unlike eMusic, I don't have to subscribe to a separate
Re:eMusic (Score:4, Informative)
"Larger" only in the most literal sense. eMusic is doesn't have major label support at all, unlike Amazon. If there's a current artist on eMusic, it's only a few quite old, unpopular, out-of-print albums.
Quick searches for the top artists from Amazon's MP3 service on eMusic turns up crap.
No albums from NIN, Pink Floyd, Kayne West, etc.
One 12+ year-old Radiohead album.
eMusic at best has a couple individual songs via "compilation" albums, but that's about it. Amazon is just a "beta" and it's already got ALL the albums from all these major groups.
Major Labels? (Score:5, Informative)
Hmm...maybe something harder...Neutral Milk Hotel? check. Danielle Dax? aww...so sad, not check. Mongol 800? no...too bad.
It seems just about everything that I listen to that is available somewhere is available here, so what am I missing? Even better though, if it's not available as an MP3 Amazon redirects me to a cd or vinyl copy. iTunes, etc. don't do that.
apple's labels fail too (Score:3, Insightful)
Led Zeppelin? Fail.
Wait, iTunes doesn't have those either, even under DRM. Hmm...
Re:apple's labels fail too (Score:4, Interesting)
****
The reality is that 90% of the stuff out there isn't on BMG or one of the few big labels anymore. In any case, it blows a big hole in ITunes. No DRM, cheaper, and a pretty large catalog. I know of several smaller labels that are going to almost certainly stop selling on ITunes as a result.
All Itunes can do at this point is damage control. It's the old Apple proprietary mentality at work again. And Apple getting burnt again by the cheaper and more open alternatives.
Oh - the bitrate appears to be 256K. Another plus - it's actually fairly decent quality.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Wait, what damage are they controlling? Apple has always been clear about the fact that the itunes music store only breaks even, and that they don't feel that attempting to lock users into their service is a good idea.
So I'm not really seeing how this hurts Apple. Apple isn't especially invested in people buying songs through itunes (on which they make no money); Apple is interested in people buying ipods (on which they do make money), and sometimes th
Re: (Score:2)
Linux compatiblilty..
"Plus, our Amazon MP3 Downloader application"
It looks like you will need Windows or maybe an Apple to purchase the songs. Why the downloader? Probably to watermark the files with your user information.
Re:Major Labels? (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
Now, if only they could get the price down... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
I've spent far more with these folks that I ever have on traditional avenues. I'd be willing to pay $0.10 a song, whereas I pay about $0.02 right now.
Personally, I think they'd sell a hell of a lot more product for a far greater overall profit if they significantly dropped prices.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
"Like I said, I'd be willing to pay up to $0.10 each. I think, given the kind of distribution they can achieve with such low prices and the internet, they would do just fine."
Are you sure about that? Legally mandated royalties in the USA are $0.08 each to the composer and lyricist; that doesn't even include the royalties to the performer if they didn't happen to write the song.
There are two pieces of popular wisdom around here that may cause some problems with your plan:
Re: (Score:2)
Do a search for "50 cent" and you'll see that the prices vary slightly, but are overall pretty good.
I did a search for "50 cent" and all I got back was a bunch of hip-hop! Wtf?
Decent Selection (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
256k mp3s (Score:5, Informative)
Re:256k mp3s (Score:5, Informative)
From Amazon's MP3 FAQ [amazon.com]:
"Bit Rate: Where possible, we encode our MP3 files using variable bitrates for maximum audio quality and smaller file sizes, aiming at an average of 256 kilobits per second (kbps). Using a variable bitrate allows us to allocate a higher bitrate to the more complex sections of music files while using a smaller bitrate for the less complex sections. The average of these rates is then calculated to produce an average bit rate for the entire file that represents the overall sound quality. Some of our content is encoded using a constant bitrate of 256 kbps. This content will have the same excellent audio quality at a slightly larger file size."
Re: (Score:2)
This does look very promising.
Joint Stereo defined (Score:4, Interesting)
How does it compare? (Score:4, Interesting)
But this is hardly the first DRM-free music download service. I've used eMusic [emusic.com] off and on for years. How does this compare and how does it improve on the other DRM-free services that already exist? In the past, the main complaint about such services was the lack of mainstream music from major labels. Won't this be the same for Amazon's offering?
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Interface is a bit awkward
Can't sort search results by column
Seemingly large selection of mainstream artists, along with some good Indie action.
256kbps VBR MP3 (Some report higher bitrates)
eMusic:
Interface is great.
Searches are helpful, recommend artists who are in the same category or are "like" the one you searched for.
~.25c/song (Not sure what current rates are, but that's what I pay). You pay for every song in the album the same as if you purchased separate, amazon ha
Discrimination, discrimination I say. (Score:2, Interesting)
It wont work anywhere but the US, I would buy from it, but it seems their attitude towards the rest of the world seems to consist of "no, fuck off".
Lame, and they need to fix it, but anyhow.
Re: (Score:2)
U.S. only isn't the worst thing for a beta test. Maybe contracts for other countries is something they're working on? It couldn't hurt to write them and express your interest in international support.
Re: (Score:2)
It's likely that each country's own messed up laws and record industry deals that prevent them from offering this service outside the US.
In Canada, we can't watch TV shows from the official US web sites either, probably since local Canadian TV stations bought the exclusive rights to broadcast the show
(and put local ads in to pay for it).
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Radical concept on slashdot, I know...
Download Manager (Score:5, Interesting)
Other restrictions (Score:3, Informative)
So you don't have quite as many "rights" as you would buying a CD, but at least they are trusting their customers to follow the law rather than
Re:Download Manager (Score:4, Informative)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
The utility is silly, when you buy an album you get a
I dunno why they couldn't throw together a simple little java app to let other platforms download.
But, yeay! DRM free MP3's. I can deal with this rather
Good selection of classical music, I think. (Score:4, Interesting)
Nothing by the less-known composers like Wilhelm Friedemann Bach (the more talented son of J. S. Bach) but still, pretty satisfactory.
Sh*t - and just when I decided to save up some money for next summer.
Top 100 (Score:3, Insightful)
Wine (Score:3, Insightful)
Still, cool :) . I expect they'll bring this to Amazon worldwide soon.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Cross platform! (Score:3, Informative)
cracks in the wall... (Score:2)
I can only hope that as bandwidth increases, peering technology gets b
This works outside the US (Score:5, Insightful)
"
1 Infinite Loop
New York
Cupertino, CA 95014
"
(Apple's US headquarters address - it's valid).
When asked for your phone number, put in your full international dialing number.
Result? It works. Raw MP3 downloads. Legal. I'm using a Mac, and it works fine with Firefox, Safari and with my iPod and on iTunes.
Re:This works outside the US (Score:5, Funny)
Provided that your definition of legal means "obtained in violation of the terms of service and by providing fraudulent information to bypass the compliance checks."
Re:This works outside the US (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:This works outside the US (Score:4, Funny)
Look's like it's not just Americans who can't be bothered to learn geography.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
FM Radio DRM'ed? (Score:2)
I have no problem listening to Grand Funk Railroad, BTO, Alice Cooper, etc if thats the kind of stuff Amazon is serving up. I keep a huge directory of those old songs on my laptops.
What was it that Homer Simpson said about Rock N'Roll. It was per
Tag this... (Score:3, Insightful)
Watermarked? Hashed? (Score:3, Interesting)
Troubles with Omniweb (Score:3, Interesting)
We didn't try with firefox, but omniweb is definitely not supported correctly by the downloader.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re:89 cents a song....Not bad (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:89 cents a song....for only 100 songs. (Score:2)
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/browse/-/163856011 [amazon.com]
Note the banner on the top of the page. Top 100 Songs: 89 cents!
Here is the list;
http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/dmusic/digital-music-track//ref=amb_link_5531872_1/103-2200715-4874201?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=ilm&pf_rd_r=13Y3V63RXKXRQFE4Z722&pf_ [amazon.com]
Re:use the preview button (Score:2)
Before purchase, make sure the song is the one you want. If you want the studio release instead of the live concert, be sure to check first.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
But my preferences may very well go beyond the stuff I purchase (which, as you stated correctly, I need to login for) and the stuff I 'browse' (as AC or w/o logging into the site). Hence why I thought it could become spyware!
Re: (Score:2)
As a proud tinfoil hat member, it's not that simple. It is to watermark your purchases so later when they show up on P-P they know who to sue.
You might not be the one who posted them on P-P but the copies you put on your kids computer that got burned on a CD and traded at school will still cause you problems.
The above comment is speculation and might not be true. It could be FUD, or maybe not.
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
While owning the physical CD is not as important (for me), the quality is. For example, I wish magnatune had a broader selection since they let you basically download an image of the CD (most of my favorite early music ensembles are not on there). The only way I'll ever use these services if I can get at least CD quality tracks.
Re:Haha - Bill Gates and the Rolling Stones (Score:5, Funny)
From the "Top 100 Best Sellers", I see that Linux users can get it for 89 cents.
But seriously, Bill Gates didn't pay $12 Million for "Start Me Up". He paid 89 cents like everyone else.
What he paid $11,999,999.11 for was the right to leave out the line "You make a grown man cry".
Hideously out of context (Score:4, Informative)
-- From Amazon's MP3 Music Service: Terms of Use --
"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."
That sentence starts out, "Except as set forth in Section 2.1 above, you agree..." Section 2.1, in its entirety, says, "Upon your payment of our fees for Digital Content, we grant you a non-exclusive, non-transferable license to use the Digital Content for your personal, non-commercial, entertainment use, subject to and in accordance with the terms of this Agreement. You may copy, store, transfer and burn the Digital Content only for your personal, non-commercial, entertainment use." This is exactly what you'd expect, except maybe the non-transferrable part.
Quoting a partial sentence the way you did, I'm tempted to think you're just trolling.