The digital music market is big, and so far Apple has owned it. But now Amazon may be quickly emerging as a viable competitor.
Tuesday, Amazon launched Amazon MP3, which gives you access to 2 million songs and more soon to come. Amazon’s product has several nice advantages over iTunes. Let’s list them briefly:
- It delivers songs in MP3 format, not a proprietary format, with the real plus being that you can play songs on any music player – the iPod, the Zune, you name it.
- There are no digital rights management (DRM) restrictions, so you can take the music you buy and download/burn it to CDs. And it doesn’t expire.
- The songs have better sound quality on average.
- And the prices are generally lower. Many songs go for 89 cents; while many albums are in the $5.99 to $9.99 range, and the 100 best-selling albums are all under $8.99.
Give Amazon MP3 a hard look and, for more details, check out these reviews – here, here, and here.
Related Note: From Oct. 2 to Nov. 7, Starbucks will be giving away 50 million free digital songs to help promote a new wireless iTunes music service that’s being rolled out in conjunction with the recent release of Apple’s iPhone and iPod Touch. Songs by 37 artists will be featured. Artists include Paul McCartney, Joni Mitchell, Dave Matthews, John Mayer, Annie Lennox and Bob Dylan. Get more info here.
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