Not the same encoding as iTunes Plus, the same bitrate. iTunes plus uses AAC.

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And a Mac client out of the gate, too. Nice to see Amazon going after the heart of Apple's success, aka the Mac Zealots.

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Sits back scratching chin waiting to see the "fine print".

Sounds almost to good to be true, so rule of thumb is...

If it is true, it will be interesting to see what Apple says in response and/or does with iTunes in response.

I do find it odd that Univ didn't like iTunes .99 w/DRM, but is fine with Amazon and no DRM for .89.

There has to be a "catch".

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There is no catch, I think. Universal hates Apple, and is desperate for there to be some other strong players in digital music. That's why I think they're prepared to offer their tracks DRM free to Amazon but not to iTunes.

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I'm betting there isn't a catch. I bet Universal simply wants to give Apple a good kick in the nutz.

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Not even the same bitrate. Amazon's tracks (at least the one I purchased) are encoded with lame 3.97's "-V 0" preset, which is an exceptionally high quality variable bitrate preset that averages about 245kbps. It is sonically superior to 256kbps mp3 in almost all cases, and virtually identical to 320kbps.

Other information:

Fully tagged with id3v1 and id3v2.3, including 600x600 album art embedded.
Tagged with a copyright statement.
Tagged with a comment containing "Amazon.com Song ID: XXXXXXXXX"
Most popular singles from popular albums are $0.89, but other tracks are $0.99. Some albums are $8, some are $9, some are $10.
They prompt you to use their download manager, but it works just fine if you decline and download it directly.
I haven't seen an obvious way to redownload purchased tracks if you lose them.

I haven't seen any personally identifying information in the file, but I haven't looked very hard. I'm looking forward to seeing what others find.

I will probably never buy another track from them again, since I don't see the point in paying for lossy-compressed music, and a used (and sometimes new) cd costs about as much as a full album on Amazon, but I'm *very* impressed by the quality of their offering.

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Hi #4

You may be right, but cutting off ones nose (hating Apple at maybe the expense of profits) to spite ones face, is never a good plan in business.

I think it will either have a "catch" or if not, Apple will make using iTunes an even more compelling product to keep people.

If I have learned anything in my time on earth, it is the meaning of the word "value" and lowest price often does not mean, best value.

Don't get me wrong competition is good, but we need to balance that in with the fact that many people also want one stop shopping, not site A for this, Site B for that, Site C for this, etc

Time also has a $$$ associated with it.

We'll see...

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The catch is you don't know the split between content provider and content gateway. It is entirely possible that Amazon is content with much smaller margins so that Universal is actually making more money per download.

Yay for common sense and competition and down with DRM.
David

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I think this is Universal's previously announced program to sell DRM free through Amazon for a trial ending in February(?). Universal said they would not sell through iTunes using it as a benchmark. Universal did say they would watermark the files even though they have no DRM. This is great but short term. The real question is how will pricing look after the trial. I don't think Universal did this to lower prices over the long term. I don't much care for the Amazon interface and hope by February Steve will be back in the program.

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URL???????

It's not in the linked press release, and I can't find it anywhere in the post. I guess I can go find it on Ars or some other Mac news site. But it seems like a critical piece of the story missing on TUAW.

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Hi # 8

You are onto something there, but FWIW I think the "catch" may be bigger than this.

The other comment posted about this being a trial for now to see how it goes, may be another important part of the puzzle.

We'll see...

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@10.

Go to amazon.com and in the left side "Browse" It is the last link under Books, Movies, and Music.

@7.

Well, you can still use itunes with these Mp3s. It just gets you away from the itunes store and its Drm ick. Hopefully it leads to DRM free files across the board.

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To echo my Digg comments, the record labels gripe that Apple is selling music too cheaply and insist that DRM is still a must. Yet they turn around and allow Amazon to sell music 1) cheaper, and 2) without DRM???

I smell collusion, and it stinks. I can walk into any store and buy a CD that has the same quality, same DRM (i.e. none), and same price. Yet the record labels are going to try to play favorites in the online domain and control individual retailers? Anyone who doesn't believe this is a very bad thing for consumers is naive.

And as for Pez's ignorant "Mac Zealots" comment (it's easy to throw out the word "zealot" or "fanboy" when you have nothing intelligent to say), I hardly think "Mac Zealots," with our whopping 5% market share, are the driving force for Apple's success in music sales. Nice try though.

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This is overall a good thing. iTunes needs some competition. But I feel a little gloomy...like every media/software/electronics/web company in the world desperately wants to find a way to "get" Apple. It makes me uncomfortable.

@ Quix - "Yet they turn around and allow Amazon to sell music 1) cheaper, and 2) without DRM???"

They'll raise the price soon enough, once they think they have some leverage with either iTunes or Amazon.

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Anyone else think it's odd that Radiohead is on there?

http://www.amazon.com/Radiohead/dp/B000QJXOGC/ref=pd_ts_th_3/105-5725536-4007654?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-4&pf_rd_r=0K6JB7EFVRZW9SJZGVSQ&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=299326801&pf_rd_i=163856011

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Look out iTunes. Even an Apple zealot like myself is tempted by this new service.

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Look, the record companies don't want any 1 single gatekeeper to digital online sales- not Microsoft, not Apple, not even Mother Theresa, for fear they will abuse that power down the road. It's not personal, it's just business.

For now, there doesn't seem to be any catch at all. Good quality encodes at a reasonable bitrate, no DRM, basically universal compatibility so you keep your music even if they raise prices or change their policies later. So it's some good competition, which is a good thing for us.

I agree that it seems unlikely they would maintain these price points indefinitely, since they weren't happy with slightly more expensive pricing on iTunes before. But it's a no-lose proposition, since any music you buy won't be tied down by DRM.

I personally prefer buying new or used CD's from Amazon any way to any online digital service. ;-)

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ok ok ok... Now just WHAT IF, the lower price works because apple told the record companies that it plans to completely drop prices? To say... 50 cents or something?

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Wow, just tried it out. Hit the site, found an album I've been looking for that isn't on itunes, bought it for 8 bucks. It downloaded with their client AND automagically got added to itunes with cover art and the whole deal. Dang. Pretty nice.

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I bought Naked Raygun's Treason (since it is not available as iTunes+), was 9 cents cheaper and it sounds great. Plays in iTunes and my iPhone. I don't see any catch and lean toward the *&%! Apple theory.

I am guessing that Apple doesn't make a significant piece of change off of each song any way and since so much of the store cost is already sunk this won't really upset the Apple media offering too much.

Apple is making a killing from their hardware right now so they can wait out this current market battle. I'll bet 90% of the AmazonMP3 purchases will go straight onto Apple hardware.

I do prefer the iTunes client/store experience since now I need this goofy AmazonMP3 plugin corrupting my perfect OS X experience ;-). Hopefully Amazon will improve the integration and UI.

Count me a happy camper for version 1 thought.

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