This past Tuesday Amazon.com decided it wanted a piece of the online music action by launching AmazonMp3 beta. I finally took a test drive last night and I have to say Apple better watch out!The most exciting part of Amazon Mp3 is that songs are offered in non-DRMed 256Mbps Mp3 format!!! Yes that's DRM free goodness people, compatible with ANY music player and in very high quality. Most songs are priced at 89 cents with some at 99. Albums are $5.99 to $9.99. Right off the bat that's cheaper than the iTunes store for the majority of their catalog. Although Amazon doesn't have as much music to offer (2 million+ songs compared to iTunes 6 million+), they did sign deals with 2 of the 4 major record labels (EMI and Universal). I am sure the other two will follow suite if Amazon Mp3 can gain some momentum. You can preview any song or album just like in the iTunes store, and they even offer a standalone download manager (similar to what allofmp3.com had) that will automatically add your purchased music to your iTunes or Windows media player libraries.
I give the store a solid B+. It would have gotten an A but it didn't have all the music I was looking for do to lack of contracts with the other two music labels. Hopefully in time, that will change and Amazon Mp3 will blow iTunes DRMed non-universal format store away.
1 comment:
Sweet, I'll check it out. I've been meaning to find a good place to buy non-DRM music.
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