For those of you out there that like music and who actually pay for it legitimately online, I just can’t recommend Amazonmp3.com enough. Amazon’s offering is VASTLY superior to Apple’s iTunes it’s ridiculous. Personally, I like owning something tangible for the most part. Digital music has always seemed to be “less than” to me. In fact, most of my music library is from used CDs (and CDs are starting to really tick me off on how easily they scratch). Apparently, along with being a pack rat I’m also a tight wad. Right. With that aside, when I do purchase music online it has always been with a feeling of incomplete ownership. And this is where my comparison of the two digital music stores comes in.
I am thankful that iTunes helped to break down the boundary of purchasing something digital online for the average person. Kudos to you, Apple. However, iTunes is a flippin’ rip-off at this point as it stands. Seriously, $.99 for EVERY song. Every one? No discounts or special sales? I just admitted I’m a tight wad. Work with me here, Apple. (*UPDATE: Apple has, in fact, decided to “work with me” and the day after I originally made this post, Apple announced they would faze out their DRM and introduce a new pricing structure) You make it super simple to purchase music, you say. Well anyone who sells music online should make that one of their goals. And yes, Apple, has the one up on this category. Purchasing music is unbelievably simple once an account has been set-up. But then you’re not really purchasing the music are you? You’re temporarily borrowing it. It’s called DRM. It supposedly helps prevent piracy but last I checked piracy is rampant. What it really does is tick off the people who actually do purchase the product legitimately.
Case in point: I’ve gone through a few computers and/or hard-drives. Normal wear and tear kind of stuff. Every time I transfer my music library for iTunes I am asked to approve the “new” device. Same goes for replaced iPods. I can put the music on something along the lines of up to 5 devices or computers. This concept works great if I purchase music like I purchase something from the grocery store. But what if I want to own my music for 20+ years (like a good record). Assuming a replaced computer or iPod every… I don’t know… 5 years (X2, one for the computer and one for the mp3 player) then I’m looking at losing full control of my music library in 15 years or less. And that’s being generous. (My argument still stand against DRM in general, regardless if it’s not necessarily going to continue to be an issue specifically with iTunes.)
Enter the Amazon MP3 store. It’s messy, it’s muddled, it’s all over the freaking place. And I love it. It’s like wading through an old record store discovering new music and finding all the hidden gems and best deals. Ok, I admit it. It’s offerings are hard, at times, to shift through and it’s not as easy to purchase from as it is from iTunes. But it’s getting better. There are two main reasons I love amazonmp3.com though. The first is that all of the music sold is DRM-free mp3. The second is that they have sales. Real, honest to goodness, all items must go promotional sales. And I’m a sucker for both. They have a daily sale with a new album (read ALBUM) on sale each day for often crazy low prices – like today you can get the new Evanescence album “Open Doors” for $1.99. And their daily prices usually have each track hovering around $.89. That adds up if you purchase a lot of music. And you really own it.
A few days ago I went really crazy and purchased several albums at once. But I almost couldn’t help it. Amazonmp3.com was offering the top 50 downloaded albums of 2008 for $5 each. Five bucks. That is such a sweet spot for me. It’s the “golden” price for an album as far as I’m concerned. I checked again today and they have taken down that promotion but the sale prices on the individual albums still stand – it’s just harder to get to from the home page since the albums aren’t grouped on one page as before. But I noticed that the link I originally used a few days ago still works so here’s the shortened version – http://tinyurl.com/9yrgah – which I think still works.
As a final note or thought or verbal barrage, whatever, I have to also admit that if I didn’t work at my comptuer constantly that I probably would never have gotten into the habit of housing all my music there. Couple this with my increased rage over the lack of durability of my CDs and you have me seriously considering investing in vinyl, a turntable, and better speakers in my living room. I don’t think it’s just me.
*UPDATE*
I guess I’m not the only one with the complaints with iTunes. Apple has already announced it’s intentions to partly solve some of the issues I brought up. Very interesting development. Well… not that interesting but still… http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/06/itunes-going-primarily-drm-free/
*UPDATE #2*
An article at cnet.com here discusses and compares iTune’s and Amazon’s digital music offerings in more detail.
