San Francisco — In a direct attack on the dominant Apple iTunes music store, web retailer Amazon.com Inc., on Tuesday launched its much-anticipated digital music store dubbed “Amazon MP3,” with nearly ‘2.3 million’ high quality songs, none of them protected against copying and, costs lower than Apple.
“Amazon’s online music catalogue lists more than 2 million songs from more than 180,000 artists and represented by over 20,000 major and independent labels, including EMI Music and Universal Music Group.”
After years of speculation and preparation — The Seattle-based e-tail giant launched what it is calling a “public beta,” or test website anyone can access on the Internet, and promising a wide selection of music unfettered by DRM (digital rights management) restrictions that prevents buyers from copying songs.
The store, Amazon MP3, lets shoppers buy and download individual songs or entire albums. The MP3-formatted music will play on all PCs and a variety of portable music players, including Apple Inc.’s iPod and Microsoft Corp.’s Zune, as well as on the iPhone, on BlackBerry devices and on Motorola’s Razr phones.
“This new digital music service has already been through an extensive private beta,” said Amazon.com vice president for digital music Bill Carr.
“Today we are excited to offer it to our customers as a fully functional public beta.”
Amazon’s store competes with Apple’s market-leading iTunes, which is also offering some songs without so-called digital rights management technology, which prevents unauthorized copies from playing.
Although DRM helps stem illegal copying, it can frustrate consumers by limiting the type of device or number of computers on which they can listen to music. Copy-protected songs sold through iTunes generally would not play on devices other than the iPod, and iPods would not play DRM-enabled songs bought at rival music stores.
Since the music is free from (DRM) restrictions, you can burn it to CD, copy it to your other computers, etc. without having to worry about the content expiring or otherwise becoming unusable in the future.
Every song and album is encoded in standard 256Kbit/s MP3 format for increased fidelity. No special software is needed to download the songs (other than a web browser); although Amazon provides a tool you can optionally use to install the songs into your existing iTunes or Windows Media Player music collection.
“While Amazon MP3 competes with the iTunes store, it also fits seamlessly into the iTunes application which then syncs with your iPod.”
Some of the top 100 best-selling songs on Amazon MP3, including the 100 most popular tunes, are priced at 89 cents — a dime lower than the price for most copy-protected songs on iTunes, while most albums are priced from $5.99 to $9.99. The top 100 best-selling albums are $8.99 or less.
“The site is integrated into the Amazon store, enabling users to purchase music with the merchant’s one-click checkout service.”
Browsing and buying MP3s from Amazon is easy. 30-second high-quality previews are available for many songs (just click on the little Play button next to the song). Once you have found something you like you can use 1-Click shopping to buy and download.
Amazon’s music download store is similar to offerings from Apple, Real Networks, and retail behemoth Wal-Mart, according to Lazard Capital Markets analyst Colin Sebastian.
Sebastian expects Amazon MP3 to be an appealing addition to the Seattle firm’s online video and book operations.
EMusic.com Inc., another popular download site, also sells tracks in the DRM-free MP3 format but, like Amazon’s store, does not offer music from some major labels that still require anti-piracy locks.
Carr said it will be up to customers to use the music they buy legally.
To help stop music piracy, Carr said some record labels add a digital watermark to MP3 files that indicate what company sold the song, and Amazon adds its own name and the item number of the song, for customer service purposes. He added that no details about the buyer or the transaction are added to the downloaded music file.
“By and large, most customers just want a great, legitimate way to buy the music they want,” Carr said in an interview Tuesday morning. “What the vast majority of labels believe is that they will sell more music by giving customers what they want…by enabling DRM-free MP3 — than by continuing to confuse customers or force them to choose methods that are not legal, because the legitimate alternatives are not good.”
“Of course you still have to respect copyright law and just use the music you buy for your own personal enjoyment.”
But with songs going for as little as $0.89 and albums for $5.99 to $9.99, there is no excuse any more for illegal download sites.
Amazon MP3 “turns up the heat on iTunes” while boosting an MP3 audio format compatible with most music players, including Apple’s ubiquitous iPod models, Sebastian said.
“We believe the company’s decision to support music files free of copy protection is likely to provide a boost to the open format by making it more difficult for music publishers to ignore the MP3 market,” Sebastian said.
“Major music labels Universal Music Group and EMI Music Publishing have signed on to sell their DRM-free tracks on Amazon, as have thousands of independent labels.”
The company said several smaller labels are offering their catalog of music for the first time as DRM-free MP3s, including Alligator Records, HighTone Records, Madacy Entertainment, Sanctuary Records, Rounder Records, Righteous Babe Records, Sugar Hill Records, and Trojan Records.
The addition of music from Universal came as something of a surprise since up to now they have been a staunch supporter of DRM restrictions. Hopefully it would not be long before DRM is just a bad memory, and all music you buy will be yours to enjoy for years to come.
However, Sony and Warner are still absent from the line-up, and they are not commenting on whether they are interested in getting into bed with Amazon without protection.
The artists Amazon will be selling music from include 50 Cent, Alison Krauss, Amy Winehouse, Ani DiFranco, Arcade Fire, Beastie Boys, Coldplay, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Ella Fitzgerald, Feist, John Coltrane, KT Tunstall, Keith Urban, Koko Taylor, Lily Allen, Madeleine Peyroux, Maroon 5, Marvin Gaye, Miles Davis, Morrissey, Nelly, Nickel Creek, Nirvana, Norah Jones, Paul McCartney, Philip Glass, Pink Floyd, Pixies, Radiohead, Ray Charles, Rod Stewart, Spoon, Stevie Wonder, The Chemical Brothers, The Decemberists, and The Rolling Stones.
Given Amazon’s massive customer base, its reputation for creating winning shopping experiences and the DRM-free nature of the music, the e-tailer’s download offering may be in the best position yet to give Apple’s iTunes Music Store a run for its money.
“Amazon did not announce when its MP3 store would be made available outside the US.”