Amazon MP3: DRM free downloads from Amazon

Amazon sounds good.

But what if Apple put out an update to iTunes that would stop it from working with Amazon downloaded MP3s... Not only that, but maybe it could render your Macintosh inoperable at the same time!

Phil Schiller: "Oops, sorry. Didn't mean to brick your Mac really. We only tested the update with sanctioned music downloads. So I guess you better not do that on your next Mac. OR ELSE."


Up until last week, I would have said this was fanciful science-fiction.

Now, I'm not so sure.

@Ian:

Thanks for the tip, but I must have misstated my point: you can download individual tracks without the downloader, but not albums. And the downloader won't work on anything below XP or OS X 10.4.

From their FAQ:

"Purchasing An Entire Album: If you wish to purchase an entire album, you are required to use the Amazon MP3 Downloader available for Windows XP or Vista and Mac OS X 10.4 or higher."

Buying digital albums on their site is usually cheaper than buying tracks singly, but since I can't run the downloader on my Win 2K machine I'll continue to use iTunes Plus for my albums.

"Canadians are out of luck... again."

Actually, I'm in Alberta, but I just put in an american address (742 Evergreen Terrace, OH) for a billing address and bought me a song this morning!

"Amazon MP3 Purchases are limited to U.S. customers."

Canadians are out of luck... again.

2 Comments:

1) This doesn't work for non-US customers. After getting the "Geographic restrictions prevent ..." error message after trying out the service, I checked the Canada and the UK Amazon sites, but there's not even a mention of it. So score another for iTunes.

2) @PK: You can download without the Amazon downloader installation. There's a link right below the first one when you go to buy the tune. It's not very noticeable, because they want you to install the downloader, but it's there.

Healthy competition it is not, Universial pulled much of its stuff because iTunes would not allow higher prices on the top songs. Now they are pushing for Amazon because there is no price cap.

I would not be surprised if the NBC shows dropped to 1.89 on amazon in hopes of de-throwning Apple. Once we all fall for the price drop and show we can switch to amazon and buy from there, expect some songs to reach new hights (in price)

Was checking out the selections and decided to buy an album or two (the album prices often let you save some significant change over buying the tracks singly). However, you can't buy an album without downloading and installing their downloader first. Furthermore, their downloader doesn't work on Windows 2000 (which I have). Guess it's back to iTunes for me...

"I'll bet 90% of the AmazonMP3 purchases will go straight onto Apple hardware."

Song #2 on their "Today's Top MP3 Songs" list is the Feist song from the latest Nano-phatty commercial, so, yeah, probably.

It's not the price that's at issue, it's the record companies' cut. THAT'S what all the brouhaha with Universal is about. Apparently they made a paltry 70c for every 99c song.

The pricing still isn't compelling enough for me to ditch CDs, but this is a very commendable start. If they can increase the range, they may just give iTunes a run for its money.

Good. I don't like to see Apple's success threatened, but if it means there's a little less DRM in the world, I'm all for it. Apple is not in my good graces at the moment for their recent anti-consumer policies. I know they're just responding to the industry, but if they can't change the industry, maybe Amazon can help.