Comments on: Amazon MP3 vs. Apple iTunes: Where Should You Shop?

By: Zach

Zach — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 19:25:25 +0000

I imagine for a 10/10 you’d need to be like Trent Reznor and NIN: that is, offer all downloads in Lossless, WAV, and MP3 formats. Of course, it would be unfeasible to do that now in 2009, but in a few years when terabyte drives are cheap, I expect that this will become more common as a way of competition.

By: Graphvegas » Coda.fm

Graphvegas » Coda.fm — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 07:02:46 +0000

[...] of the RIAA or major records labels, who can withhold rights to sell. Not an option for Amazon, who want a slice of Apple’s MP3 market [...]

By: iTunes vs. Amazon MP3 « Safe Digression

iTunes vs. Amazon MP3 « Safe Digression — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 01:26:31 +0000

[...] iTunes, though a lot of those side-by-sides were done when the service launched in September 2007. Here is one such comparison completed shortly after Amazon MP3 launched. (It bears mentioning that of the obscure album test [...]

By: Amazon vs iTunes | Trends Updates

Amazon vs iTunes | Trends Updates — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 17:29:17 +0000

[...] Gigaom. RSS Feed Subscribe by Email [...]

By: Shyam

Shyam — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 03:31:06 +0000

Well put,Mr.Paul Woodward – Both these services are useless outside the USA.I don’t know when these guys will make it to India.Whenever i need some albums i bother my friends or family who stay in the US.IT’S A REAL PAIN!!

By: The Inquirer ES : Amazon MP3, la alternativa real a iTunes

The Inquirer ES : Amazon MP3, la alternativa real a iTunes — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 14:12:11 +0000

[...] análisis de HyperBot es muy interesante, como señala Om Malick, y en él se destacan cuatro [...]

By: seeking an itunes replacement — from the gutter

seeking an itunes replacement — from the gutter — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 06:06:59 +0000

[...] a store that recently re-launched with no DRM and with iPod compatiblity. You can check out this 2007 comparison of amazon and itune, which has improved since then in amazon’s favor. [I still find [...]

By: Clarissa

Clarissa — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 20:06:45 +0000

That’s very useful information! thank you!

By: troyandgay.com/blog » iTunes is #2, people like plastic discs less

troyandgay.com/blog » iTunes is #2, people like plastic discs less — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 17:21:38 +0000

[...] have their download store open, they’ve fallen from #4 to #5 since June 2007, despite good reviews of the service. It’s all about the iPod integration, I [...]

By: Amazon Hears the Future, Buys Audible.com - GigaOM

Amazon Hears the Future, Buys Audible.com - GigaOM — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 16:45:34 +0000

[...] agreement to buy digital audio book reseller Audible.com is just another milestone in a string of deals that Amazon believes will take it from books to [...]

By: Rodney Vask

Rodney Vask — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 05:12:17 +0000

"256 kbps and DRM free. Need we say more"

CAREFUL here!! Amazon's tracks are encoded with VBR or Joint Stereo Modes (both of which may save space, but I particularly dislike because they affect dynamic range and can cut subtleties in the music. Plus the MP3 encoder may be universal but not close in quality to an AAC encoder.

Apple keeps consistency with what they sell and that is the biggest difference between these two stores. Apple sells in the AAC format (hopefully soon DRM-FREE) at 128kbps (256kbps EMI) in normal stereo mode and codified with iTunes/Quicktime encoder. I don't know what Amazon uses, I think Lame, but sometimes you can't tell.

Buy from iTunes until Amazon gets things straight. And if you re worried about the price, buy an iTunes gift card, they have great deals on eBay

By: To See the Future of the Recording Industry, Look to Pac-Man - GigaOM

To See the Future of the Recording Industry, Look to Pac-Man - GigaOM — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 19:11:47 +0000

[...] Vivendi’s Universal, Warner Music and EMI — last year started selling DRM-free music online, with Sony BMG widely expected to soon follow suit. And today, Napster said it will soon start [...]

By: i-rant

i-rant — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 17:49:18 +0000

Details in my rant posted above ( http://www.i-rant.org) but my highlighted points are: This is a good thing for people who want to save some money. Amazon is the king of online retailers and will bring a lot to the table including buying history, integrating other’s reviews, better search engines, etc. Anyone that wants to start slinging business ethics charges at Apple and Microsoft should really consider the real history of the music business. Buying high-fidelity versions of vinyl records and SACD’s were on my list – I always had a “stylus” and CD player capable of playing them. The standard Apple files are incomparable. This is better but I want more. iTunes store was never designed to be a huge revenue generator, it was designed to sell iPods – this will do that too. Apple has always been proprietary in regards to its OS only working on Apple machines. Apple controls things to make sure the user experience is consistent and a true pleasure. Its what we expect from them. Its what the iTunes store was all about. And we all “pay more” for this. Sacrificing “open” for this is a good thing; its a far cry from the opposite which is exercising market dominance by offering cheep prices/free goods for Monopolistic dominance. That’s why Wallmart dominates the small towns now, that’s why there is only MS Word and not Wordstar, Wordperfect, etc. but then again, is iLife and iWork a move to do the same thing? Capitalism – its what makes it all possible, but we must be savvy consumers.

By: GigaOM - article on Amazon MP3 Downloads @ i-rant: Jim Charanis

GigaOM - article on Amazon MP3 Downloads @ i-rant: Jim Charanis — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 17:41:34 +0000

[...] – article on Amazon MP3 Downloads Posted on 1/6/2008 Categories: Business, General, Technology. Amazon MP3 vs. Apple iTunes: Where Should You Shop? – GigaOM Om Malik writes on GigaOM that “More than 1 million of the 2 million songs are priced at 89 [...]

By: Steve

Steve — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 15:40:26 +0000

I like more Amazon mp3 – it’s have better service

By: TJR

TJR — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 18:04:16 +0000

As a musician and independant recording artist who has three CDs available on the iTunes music store, I will say the following: Itunes is not the music business. The DRM was something they had to agree to get the record labels on board. Also, I am sure that everyone at Apple realizes just how easy their DRM is to bypass (Although you will never hear them say it). Itunes pays the record label their share and it is up to the record labels to pay the artists fairly. Since I am independant and don’t deal with a label that money is paid to me. Itunes created the first online music store that actually worked (previous attempts by other companies where failures). It is a fun interactive store to use but it is not for everyone. When Apple became a huge success a few years ago, the record labels immeadiately wanted to start raising prices. Apple resisted and prices where kept at 99 cents. I do not know if the Amazon store is a come on by the labels to raise prices or not, but competition is good. If Amazon starts raising prices then go back to Apple. But competition is good. I would like to see prices tiered based on quality of download. Consumers who aren’t as concerned with bit rate and quality could pay a lot less for lo fi files and those who are bigger audiophiles could pay more for higer bit rate files.