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WOW. Besides the fact that it's in MP3 format instead of AAC format, this is the first real competition for Apple iTunes. The albums & singles are CHEAPER than iTunes, and they all come without any DRM at all. Plus, they have a Mac OS X version of their downloader program, so they are not leaving Mac users in the dark! I just bought an MP3 album from amazon.com for $8.99 ($1 cheaper than the same album was on iTunes), all because I didn't want to go through the hassle of stripping the DRM from the album. Great job, Amazon! Very impressed here.

Finally some competition! Might have to give this a try.

Yeah! Competition!

This is a good thing ffor all, folks.

Reports from users on other sites have been positive.

Just tried it. Works flawlessly. Imports to itunes. Plays on ipod/iphone!

Itunes is done!

Selling my Apple stock today.

I applaud Amazon for this

This actually does look good.

Just another sign that the labels want to break Apple's stranglehold on the market... which, IMO, would be a good thing on the whole even if it did lead to "variable" pricing in the long run.

Is it possible to convert the MP3 to an AAC file with the same quality and size that you would get from the iTunes store?

Why would you sell your Apple stock? This is a plus for Apple. The iPod is the best MP3 player on the market and holds 70% of it. Amazon is helping to make the record companies obsolete and providing a new source for iPod media. It costs Apple nothing. Apple makes next to nothing on iTunes downloads anyway. It's only a service to provide media for iPods, sales of which is where Apple makes its money.

The pricing is good, but the music selection is nowhere near that of Apple's. I just tried searching for some popular artists that I like, such as James Blunt and Keane, but both are not even available.

Unfortunately it's US only

It is definitely a healthy competition for Apple. Unlike Amazon, though, which must compete on prices, as retail is its only business, Apple can afford to even take a loss on iTunes if it wanted to, in order to compete.

Having said that, I believe Amazon will be modest success at best, for the same reason that made iTunes what it is today. With iTunes, iPod owners have everything in one place. They click, the song shows up on their iPod. It simply cannot be made any easier than that. And Amazon (or any other competitor) will never be able to make it that simple.

As for the Amazon's catalogue, Universal's presence alone should give them enough credibility. As much as most people hate labels, and especially Universal, they are by far the biggest, with the greatest stars and back catalogue.

In the end, Universal has set itself up to eat its words no matter how it goes. If they succeed, their DRM-free Amazon approach will re-affirm Jobs's call for DRM-free music. If they fail with their Amazon venture, it will re-affirm Jobs's pricing and distribution choices. My guess is that they will not succeed. They will probably not fail miserably and Amazon will probably continue to sell music digitally, but it will not become a significant competitor to Apple.

I wonder if the labels get more than 70% of the price of the download, because 70% wasn't enough when some fatcat was talking about the ITMS recently. I have bought CDs from Amazon, so I might try this.

RE: "Besides that unfortunate format choice and the need to run the Amazon MP3 Downloader application, this looks good (based solely on the press release, as we haven't tried it)."

What do you think iTunes is? Based on my experience with iTunes I'm pretty sure I can't download songs through my browser.

Hooray Amazon. Maybe someday we'll get descent quality, DRM free movies too.

this is very good, I wonder if they will let independent artists (as opposed to independent labels) on there

well, I stand corrected. With the little downloader application, it will automatically dump the MP3 into iTunes for you.

While the choice of MP3 over AAC may be unfortunate, they made up for that (at least a little bit) by encoding at 256kbps. They also provide album art with the downloads. This way, the stuff is pretty much the same as FairPlay-constrained AAC files from iTunes store (price-wise; quality-wise, it's more like the $1.30 DRM-free songs).

Definitely not bad at all. The only significant differentiator here will be the catalogue volume, which is dramatically larger on iTunes. Let's watch how it plays out, although I wouldn't sell my AAPL stock just yet. Those who suggest this have no idea where Apple is making its money (hint: it ain't iTunes Music; look to your left - iPod/iPhone/Mac).

@Henri
Oddly the only thing preventing non-US buyers is the State pop-down menu. It's labelled as State/Province/Region yet only States are listed. Everything else lead me to believe that canadian purchases were allowed. I'll patiently wait....

Nice.
Simple.
No crap.

APPLE COULD LEARN FROM AMAZON.

Interesting to see that Universal Music Group (part of Vivendi) is one of the major labels offering DRM free music @ 89 and 99 cents. Wasn't it yesterday that they were complaining that the Itunes music store terms were indecent?? I can't believe Amazon is giving them more than 70 cents per song (which is the deal they get with Apple), when the song costs 89 cents.

hmnnnn.

methinks this is not so good for the likes of eMusic

MP3 = old and inferior format
AAC = superior format, best compression
MP3 256kbps = AAC 128kbps quality
256kbps = 50% less music in your iPod
Browse based = suck
iTunes Store + the app = all in one rules
and the list goes on and on...

So Universal (and EMI) want to set a precedent of 89 cents for non-DRMed songs, and 89 cents for the Top 100 songs. Since Apple has the largest sales volume, I see no reason why Apple shouldn't set a lower price point for the Top 100 DRMed and non-DRMed songs to 89 cents. They'd still be the most likely to make a few pennies.

Thomas Fitzgerald states that older songs will sell from 99 cents to $1.94, which sets a precedent of selling older songs for more, not less, money. This is especially revealing.

@Frank,
I downloaded the required download application and when trying to use it, it immediately responded with "we are sorry it is US only" or something like that. I deleted the application subsequently.

Hmmmm.....I smell real competition for once!

The downloader application in NOT necessary unless you are purchasing an entire album. I see this as a healthy, competitive move which should benefit everyone.

"Nice.
Simple.
No crap.

"APPLE COULD LEARN FROM AMAZON." —theloniusMac

I agree that Amazon MP3 looks nice at first glance, but what are you talking about? Are you suggesting that Apple products and services are not nice, simple and crap-free? Apple defines these qualities!

One of the things that will be interesting to watch is Amazon's prices. We've heard nothing yet about their contract with "the labels". The current prices could be nothing more than bait to bring in some customers before the prices start climbing. Labels are not unhappy with iTunes, just Job's unwillingness to allow variable pricing (interpretation: "label controlled pricing"). New business mostly need customers before they raise their prices. Lets compare Amazon's prices to those on iTunes in a year, and see how we as consumers faire then.

This might provide just enough "competition" to keep the anti-trust people at bay...

Just downloaded Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane from the new Amazon store.

Sounds great.

Downloaded the same album from iTunes.

One thing I'll say for iTunes, the entire album downloads in SECONDS.

The quality of the audio of both stores is very good. One is indistinguishable from another.

The MP3 songs are substantially larger.

I'm still not sure how I feel about the sliding scale and all-feels like the old regime trying to resurrect the old business model to me, but this is hoe it should be: use your music that you've legally purchased wherever you want. MP3 and bit rates are still suckin', but it's an interesting move forward. And let us not forget that Apple gave us the first real legitimate digital music store. iTunes set the standard now others may follow. Interesting.

Yup, I've bought here now too. There are dozens of hard core swing bands that aren't yet on iTunes available here including George Gee etc and the overall prices are cheaper by at least $1-2 per album than the comparable iTunes ones. And MP3 format is fine by me. Bring it on I say, the more swing the better.

PS. Henri's comment about only US seems wrong. I'm in Canada (though I have both US and Canadian credit cards after working in the states) and my purchase went through fine.

Sounds to me as if Amazon will get more people to buy iPods which is good for Apple and its stockholders.

I just found some tunes on Amazom that were selling for $1.94. On iTunes these are album only.

Quicksilver Messenger Service - Happy Trails - Mona, Calvary.

Interesting.

You can convert the 256k MP3 to 128k AAC without much of audible loss. If you have some older than 90's music their mastering and mixes are so bad to begin with that it doesn't matter and the newer productions are so good that they can take the resampling without loss. The biggest loss happens when the music that is recorded with 96k--192k sampling rate is transfered from the studio master to 44.1k CD

I'm just wondering if iTunes will match Amazon's prices, at least it gives Apple some negotiating power. Waiting for $5 album prices...

Can someone answer this one for me?

When playing a 256kbps MP3 versus the same quality 128kbps AAC, will there be a difference in battery life of the player?

They also have album only tracks:

James Gang - Live in Concert - Lost Woman

Competition is always good - whether or not Amazon succeeds is no indication that Apple will stop being successful - they'll just have competition, and this will be very good for Amazon, Apple, and you and me.

Good for consumer, not too bad for Apple, real bad for Microsoft.

This competition will be good for the consumer and Apple will continue to rake in the $$ since they make most their $$ from selling iPods/iPhones anyhow. Pricing and DRM-free is interesting given the labels have been arguing for higher-priced tracks and continued copy protection. It will be interesting how this affects iTunes pricing and their relationship with the labels. Seems to be a move opposite of what they've been pushing for, but I guess limiting Apple's power is the focus at the moment.

Although the MP3 format plays on most any digital player (iPods, Zunes, Zens, etc.) it seems to be another blow to Microsoft's WMA format. The two largest digital media companies may end up being Apple and Amazon - both selling formats that work with iPods/iPhones (again, where Apple really makes $$). This may also open the floodgates for more stores supporting DRM-free content - great for consumer, perhaps detrimental to the labels and artists - we'll see.

I prefer ACC, but MP3 @ 256k isn't bad at all. I don't believe ACC @ 128k is equivelent to MP3 @ 256k like the comment above. More like ACC @ 190k, but someone out there probably has the spec.

CORRECTION: AAC not ACC - the coffee's still not working

Poor take MDN! I just bought 3 tracks, that I had considered buying on iTunes...sorry, but the .30 cent savings adds up over the course of 400 songs.

Amazon the new iTunes.

"APPLE COULD LEARN FROM AMAZON."

What could they learn? Hmmm? Could they learn about having DRM-free downloads? If thats the case I think they already KNOW that. They need PERMISSION to make them DRM free.

If you are saying they could learn better music purchase music player integration then you are off base my friend. Buying through iTunes is still the easiest way to get your music from that standpoint.

How many 'touches' do you'll need to buy a song from Amazon in a iPod Touch? HAHAHA

The 10 cents more from iTunes are for the convenience.

They have less titles than iTunes, but, hey competition makes better products, right?

Not too shabby!

so amazon can sell tunes for less than .99 cents and yet the record companies want apple TO RAISE their prices. Pretty unfair

Awesome, just awesome. I've been sitting here paging through hundreds of albums (many of which I already own), but there's so many great titles out there. I think this is the first service that begins to give iTMS a run for its money. Competition is a good thing, and 256 Kbps MP3 is just fine with me. Hell, half of my collection is ripped in 128 Kbps MP3 and I can't tell the difference.

My bet: Amazon wouldn't be selling $.89 DRM-free tracks if it weren't for Apple sticking to their guns. Apple helped make this possible and I don't agree with the comment "APPLE COULD LEARN FROM AMAZON."

Currently, there's a lot less of a selection from Amazon and new albums like today's Foo Fighters release are not available. Also, iTunes is still better organized and designed plus has more features.

It's a win for Apple either way - more iPod sales!

"APPLE COULD LEARN FROM AMAZON."

What's to learn??

I will look here for music first. Personally the difference between MP3 @ 256k and AAC @ 128k is small enough to make the DRM free recording worth looking for first. Apple sells DRM free as AAC @ 256k for $.40 more then Amazon. The question here is will the difference between MP3 @ 265k and AAC @ 256k be worth the price higher price. I think to most consumers not care and so will look at Amazon first (most consumers by PC on price not function).

One negative is that the UI of Amazon is cumbersome. The search process clunky. In order to listen to a sample of a track you need to drill down to the track first. If you do not want to buy that track ..., backup three pages to return to your search result. iTunes makes searching and sampling super easy. My approach will be to find what I want in iTunes then check to see if it is available at Amazon.

PM

This is the end of ITMS! It hasn't been announced yet, but I'm sure with the new Zune 2.0 with the innovative use of the "Squircle", Microsofts own music store will provide DRM Free Windows Media Format at 640kbs. Yes 5x that of 128kbs. With Microsoft own "AGS" Adaptive Guessimate System, that 640 will be down to 64kbs, thus saving you many megabytes of space. Now you can have twice the amount of music on your new Zune 2.0 with Squircle technology. This is just the beginning. The dynamic duo of Bill Gates and Ballmer are on a roll now.