I should preface effusiveness by saying that there are plenty of things not to like about Amazon’s new digital music store, Amazon MP3. As Om Malik points out, the interface is really not that great, though the downloader application is virtually transparent once you’ve downloaded it. I was also seriously disappointed at not being able to find a lot of the songs I wanted to download. Music that may not be recent, but is relatively mainstream. Bummer.
However…
Wow. Overall I love Amazon MP3. After running through set-up and trying my free download (a song called “Energy” by The Apples), I found and purchased a song by Mike Doughty of former Soul Coughing fame. A click of the mouse and “I Hear the Bells” downloaded to my laptop and transferred automatically into iTunes. Nice touch.
Once I had the song safely on my laptop (for a mere 89 cents) I walked over to my Squeezebox remote. It’s been a long time since I’ve streamed anything from my computer to my Squeezebox since mostly I just listen to Internet stations and podcasts. But that’s because most of my downloaded music is sadly DRM-protected by Apple and can’t be heard through the Squeezebox. Different story with my new Amazon download. A couple of clicks with my remote and my newly purchased song was blasting through my living room speakers. Glorious.
Yes, yes, I know you can get DRM-free music from iTunes, but there’s something great about going to an online store where you know everything available is music that can be moved around to any device. And it’s a bit shocking to pay only 89 cents for some tracks. Dangerous. I see possible addiction ahead.
I can’t wait until Amazon adds more music to its DRM-free catalog. Maybe, just maybe we have an actual iTunes competitor now.
Two more tidbits from my experience: First, if you search on an album, Amazon will show you a list of all the songs on that album with links next to the ones that are available for download. Second, I went over to Pandora to check out my bookmarked songs and decide what I might want to purchase. Pandora includes a link to iTunes and a link to Amazon next to each bookmarked track, but I found that the Amazon link goes to Amazon’s CD store. I’m guessing Pandora will add a link soon to Amazon MP3 – one more way to make downloading even easier.
If you are a Mike Doughty fan, I highly recommend Emusic. 40 songs a month for about $10. No DRM.
Thanks for the tip. If I thought I’d download that frequently I’d do it, but I know I won’t. There aren’t enough hours in the day when I can listen to music. Which is frustrating.
It requires a USA billing address for your credit card by the looks of it. Doesn’t do us much good over on the other side of the world (where the local authorities are always complaining about music piracy being rampant – not surprising as they make it impossible to buy the way we want it)
What is the quality of the song? Bitrate?
Looks like it’s 256 VBR.
Thanks for plugging Mike Doughty! I am in no way connected to him except that I think he’s a genius and under-appreciated. He’s amazing. Haughty Melodic is a perfect album in my mind–not a song out of place.
I also love eMusic. I think you have to find time for music in your life.
Wish this was around a few years ago before I bit the bullet and quit fighting the apple proprietary machine.
Basically, I loved the convenience and price of itunes but hated not being able to listen to itunes songs on my tivo and home stereo (without ripping to cd and back again).
Now I’ve bitten the bullet on an AppleTV, but at least I’ll get the best of both worlds.
I wish they would release the songs in FLAC format.
Some artists from Nettwerk (nettwerk.com) release their music via mp3 and FLAC. Sarah McLachlan being one of those artists.
Thanks for this post. I’ve wanted something like this for a decade. As a snub to Apple’s AAC-only DRM-ridden histry, my first purchase was Feist’s 1234 (the song used in the current Apple chubby Nano commercials).
I live in Canada and they sold the song to me. I don’t know which songs are or are not available here, but I’ll be heavily using this service going forward as long as it works here.
…Dale
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