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Besides the prices difference Apple does not sell MP3's. They have from the very beginning been using the AAC codec which is .m4a. I am quite picky about my sound considering the massive system in my car. I will never run an MP3 through a 1500watt stereo system. The AAC codec does half the file size for the same quality MP3. A 128kbps is the same quality as a 256kbps MP3. And for anyone who is going to say there is no difference. Run it through a massive and clean stereo setup. The bass line on an MP3 is crap and can kill your subs. The encoding on the .m4a is much better and retains the bass line from a CD, I have played both a CD and the .m4a file at competitions and no one can tell the difference. The tracks are higher quality, they might be higher priced, but you know what. When I can show off a stereo system running off of an iPod and not a CD, I will stick with higher quality, and the only true player that plays all open standards. And .m4a is a standard file that any music vendor could go with. MS should fire the person that came up with wma as I have never encountered a worse format than this, except for maybe the atrac format, ugh Sony. I have also tried the Amazon browsing interface, and quite frankly it sucks something fierce, sorry. I have to give kduos to Apple, they will reign supreme for just a bit longer I beleive

Sorry mean Kudos not kduos, and wow First post ever, go me!!!

Of course it's not bad for Apple. But that's not the point. Amazon's site is terrible news for consumers because, if successful, it allows the record companies to regain control over pricing. Pay 89 cents instead of 99 cents now and you will pay a lot more later on for album bundling and variable pricing. Record companies control competition in distribution, and with Amazon watermarking, they will try to shut down the real competition of file sharing.

the FOOL nailed it!!

Amazon may help get Europe off Apple's back even though Amazon is not selling music in Europe. It demonstrates that the market is wide open.

On Amazon I'm seeing 10 out of the top 10 mp3 players are from Apple, and 16 out of the top 20. Not too shabby.

More in the full article, including four of Apple's primary advantages when it comes to the iPod, here.

Are you kidding me? The iPod has advantages over other MP3 players? Don't waste your time clicking on that link. My 3-year old Dell Ditty runs circles around the latest iPods. And as far as Amazon's new MP3 store goes it's a bust already. Why? No WMA files. Zunes, Dittys, Zens, Sansas all can play the magnificent WMA format. WMA is better because Microsoft developed it with the same attention to detail and care that they put into Windows. And Office. MP3 is a lost cause when the future is WMA. Whatever.

Your potential. Our passion.™

Actually, on their "bestselling" list, I'm now seeing eight out of the top 10, and 15 out of the top 20 are iPods. Not too shabby.

@Zune Tang

HAHAHAHAHA, you have a Dell Ditty??? HAHAHAHA you really did get suckered into that piece... When they named it Ditty that was the death of it right there. HAHAHAHAHA I can't help but laugh...

@Zune Tang

By the way WMA is the worst format for anything, you really did get suckered

You're a pretentious dweeb
HAHAHAHAHAHA

You take satire at face value
HAHAHAHAHAHA

We're all enthralled by your car stereo: NOT!
HAHAHAHAHA

Have a great evening with the palm sisters
HAHAHAHAHA

However - Amazon is not secure at all, and you can purchase from Europe as well. Which for UK customers makes the tracks nearly half the price of iTunes. Even using a European credit card. all you need to do is change your billing address to any random US ZIP code and off you go, no further questions asked.

Doesn't work that easily with Apple.

Wow, a pretentious Dweeb, that a new one, and if you knew Satire, you would realize the first comment is about quality. The second comment is Satire, and the third comment about WMA is fact. Go back to school and learn something, Anything, it would make you not look like a Dweeb.

If I ever meet Michael Dell, I'm going to refer to him as D-Ditty.

@ MacTech84

Never mind the punters, your comments are appreciated.
And just so you know, Zune Tang is out resident scarecrow, and his comments are to be taken with a rather large salt lick.

-c

@Chrissy One

Perfect!!! Simple, Short, and Sweet!!

"our" resident...

@ MacTech84

I'm actually very complex, and ridiculously tall.

Sweet..? Guilty.

@Chrissy one

That is awesome, complex and tall go hand in hand, and make for a very interesting person =)


.... and long legs... lol

There must be pics of your car on the web somewhere, if you show it, can we see?

Zune Tang is the alter-ego of ChrissyOne. The salt lick she refers to is dripping with gobs of satire.

Amazon MP3 store is only good for the consumer as long as prices are kept consistently low. I will continue to buy from iTunes Store.

@ Chrissy One
I wish there were some shots.... I mainly compete in mid range and they never take shots. I will have to take some personally and post them. Lets just say, when I got pulled over once, the cop was 3 cars behind me, and he was rather cool about the fact that I was causing his car to vibrate. That is the power of an iPod and clean sound.

What I told a columnist at CNET to do is write a column on who this really hurts - Redmond.

This is a major blow to M$, and shows just how little control they have left in the media industry. Their DRM license scheme to dominate is up in smoke. Amazon just put a stake through it, and Apple will eventually be able to get the labels to deliver DRM via iTunes as well.

Redmond's only hope is to somehow put out digital handsets that are so amazingly awesome, no one and their dog will be able to resist them...

So case closed. Apple wins, and Amazon just helped the cause - big time.

@The Batman most on line site match up the credit card and billing address so unless your card has that random US address and zip code you're still SOL and have to pay the going exchange rate which is always more favorable when paying by credit card.

@ Believe it

I am a lot of things, but I'm not Zune Tang. I don't have *that* much time on my hands.

I was interested 2: mactech84

Are these songs only 10 cents cheaper, what a waste of time Amazon is?
PS: Whats your advice for speakers in a house and a ampifier?

Chrissy

@iphonemr.com

Bose is simply over rated and over priced. If you are serious do not go with an all in one system. Go for a system you have to build. Yamaha or Pioneer receiver is always a good choice. And Eclipse makes some great speakers. Polk is also another good one for speakers and Pioneer too. Crutchfield has a good amount to look at and make some good comparisons with.

Have any of you people that respond to Zune Tang figured out that s/he is clearly being satirical? Zune Tang is not making a serious argument, s/he is making fun of MSFT fanbois (and arguably is rather amusing).

@ Mike

DUH!!!, and if someone knew how to read this thread they would realize we came to that conclusion already.

"The AAC codec does half the file size for the same quality MP3."

Oh, come on. AAC is good, sure, but it's not *that* good. It's still a frequency-domain, DCT-based compression scheme like MP3, although it uses a few more tricks like a better psychoacoustic model to determine what it needs to encode and what it can drop.

It will do until we have the processing power to go to wavelets for audio.

-jcr

MacTech84,

HInt: Zune Tang is writing satire. Can't you tell?

-jcr

...i remember my first blog post.

welcome to the game mactech84... back in the early 90s i was all about the bass in my car... then i realized that i valued my hearing, and then i started editing audio... and i remembered riding around in my car and my friends cars and that dj magic mike slowly killing my hearing...

please wear hearing protection... or don't be a dumbass and have it loud enough to get pulled over while driving.

/still wears hearing protection when playing drums... and going to concerts.

Amazon's online music store just makes it more likely that all music sold online will become DRM-free sooner, rather than later. The only way to have a viable competitor to the iTunes Store is for it to sell DRM-free tracks. Why? Because the only DRM method that works on iPods is Apple's FairPlay. If you use an alternative DRM method, you automatically exclude the top selling music players, iPods. That's obviously stupid, even though the mistake has been repeated countless times. Doing so is like selling dog food that only poodles can eat.

The music labels are motivated to have a rival to iTunes so that they can have more negotiating power when dealing with Apple. Therefore, they will be compelled to support Amazon and offer to sell DRM-free music. But that's exactly Apple wants, because eventually, the labels will also have to offer DRM-free tracks to all music vendors, including Apple's iTunes Store. At that point, Apple wins everything, because Amazon's web-based interface will never rival the elegance of iTunes and iPods. The only way for Amazon to compete is to lower the price. Again, that's exactly what Apple wants, and what the music labels don't want.

It's entertaining to watch how Steve Jobs absolutely manipulates the morons running the music industry.

@Ken1W

Thank you for the concern, but I do not go that high in the car unless its for a competition, which then I am not even in the car. I love my hearing too =)

@John C. Randolph

If you knew anything of the codec, and listened to the difference you would realize it is that good and that accurate. Also, if you actually read this thread. You would have realized that i know what satire is and we took care of that a long time ago, and I was being satirical back. Now grow half a brain you r-tard and do some reading before you post.

Sorry Ken1w, I mean to say @The Velvet Hammer, thanks for your concern.

Boston Acoustics makes great speakers too.

http://www.bostonacoustics.com/

@ Ken1w

Amazon's web-based interface will match the elegance of iTunes and iPod because it works WITH iTunes, allowing users to download into iTunes. Of course Amazon will only compete on price, but if it takes enough market share away from Apple, that's what the music labels want. They want to make their threat not to renew their contract with Apple, which they have already tried in negotiations, to be effective. Amazon doesn't care about album bundling or variable pricing.

Sh...... for D in itty from Dull - nice one Zune Tang

@Paul Johnson,

four words as to why Amazon's music store will not put so much of a dent into Apple's dominance as you think:

iTunes WiFI Music Store.

Because of the iPhone and iPod Touch, people will have even more incentive to buy from the iTS than ever before.

For all the headlines Amazon is getting now for selling unprotected (but watermarked) MP3's, far too many people forget that it was Apple / EMI and eMusic who got the non-DRM ball rolling.

Amazon doesn't have to be a good browsing experience. It's a warehouse. The top 400 are all 89 cents. That's about as far as I'll go for browsing, unless I have a specific song I want. Otherwise I'll go to iTunes.

Somebody writing for Motley Fool who confuses revenue and gross profit. A Fool indeed.

"It will do until we have the processing power to go to wavelets for audio."

Why bother. We already have the storage capacity for lossless audio.

"eventually, the labels will also have to offer DRM-free tracks to all music vendors, including Apple's iTunes Store. At that point, Apple wins everything, "

They don't have to do anything of the sort. They could supply Apple DRM'd tracks only at a high price to drive people away from iTunes. They could let others reach a certain level of sales and popularity then pull the plug on their contracts with iTunes. Nobody can force them to sell anything to Steve.

Who's licking salt off ChrissyOne?

you know, I'm not really impressed. I just went to Amazon's site actually wanting to buy music from them, but fond searching for new music very difficult.

I'm sticking with iTunes. I have an iPod anyways so what does it matter?

"I have an iPod anyways so what does it matter?"

If you figure that over your lifetime nobody but Apple will make a music playing device that you want to use, iTunes is your store.

I have come to this conversation late but there is one thing to be said with regards to this thread.

To all the newcomers i.e MacTech84 Drink Lots of Camel's Milk, you will realize that there is a certain joy to be found on this blog site after the quaffing of a few quarts of the stuff! ENJOY!!!

@Camels Milk Drinker

Have fund with that endeavor, and I am not a newbie here r-tard. I read a lot and post when I want to. I do have one question for you. Do like it in the bottle? or straight from the Camel nipple??

Walt has been off the farm for a while but it's good to see an old friend coming home.
In his article, "Apple’s iPod Touch Is a Beauty of a Player Short on Battery Life", he proceeds to tear into the fancy toy! Moss'y has been away from Job's Reality Distortion Field just long enough to start seeing the truth: Apple has less marketshare so it's products are inferior.

http://fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com/2007/09/mossberg-disses-ipud-touched.html