Amazon Taking DRM-Free MP3s International in 2008

Just more options for us consumers. :D

I need to get an iPod/Phone now...

that's good thing for the people overseas's

The Amazon store is pretty good. The interface is obviously not nearly as good as iTunes but their little Downloader program that automatically puts the songs into iTunes works well.

I now do a little comparison shopping between the two stores. I prefer buying from iTunes but if the price is equal and the iTunes version has DRM while the Amazon doesn't, then Amazon gets the sale. Often though the Amazon price is below iTunes and often the iTunes option is not iTunes Plus, so it still has DRM and is only encoded at 128kpbs. In this case, Amazon is the obvious choice.

So Apple, it's about time to make the whole store DRM-free. I know that's not completely up to them. But in making the choice, DRM-free wins every time.

Finally I get somewhere to buy songs from apart from iTunes! :) Hope the selection is good.

SL

I thought the qtrax announcement was more interesting.

Great news!:)

The only thing better about iTunes Store right now is the interface and usability. Apple makes it so darn easy to spend money. Good for consumers, though. Competition means better products/lower prices.

The AmazonMP3 store is many steps ahead of the iTunes store. MP3 is a more compatible and portable format than AAC, and Amazon encodes their MP3s using LAME in the -V0 setting, which is the "industry" standard. The term "industry" is being used loosely. Music pirates, who on a by-volume basis are essentially the industry, have long figured out that LAME -V0 is is the best format for storing and transfering music. Furthermore, listening tests have shown that LAME -V0 is indistinguishable from source material (which is also true for 256 kbps AAC but not 128 kbps AAC). Lastly, their entire catalog is offered without DRM, making music purchased from the Amazon store as "future-proof" as possible, i.e. portable, CD-transparent audio in the industry-standard format. On top of all that, they are often priced lower than iTunes.

Hands down, Amazon's offering provides the best possible consumer value. While Apple's leadership with the music labels created the environment in which a consumer-minded service like AmazonMP3 could be conceived, Apple's market dominance can only help them for so long against the retail juggernaut that is Amazon.

In my mind the AmazonMP3 store is many steps ahead of the iTunes store. MP3 is a more compatible and portable format than AAC. In addition, Amazon encodes their MP3s using LAME in the -V0 setting, which is the "industry" standard.

I haven't found any evidence of this in any of the mp3 files I have purchased from Amazon. As much as I'd like it to be true I haven't been able to determine what their files have been encoded with. Whatever they're using doesn't sound good to my ears.

I will agree that Lame is a top notch encoder. I can't tell the difference between a lame or itunes aac song at 256 kbps.

Good for competition. But, to my ears, Amazon mp3's just don't sound as good as an iTunes AAC file.

Which one? iTunes AAC+ which is encoded at 256kbps or Protected AAC which is encoded at 128kbps? Despite AAC being a newer and better codec than MP3, the comparatively low bitrate of most iTunes songs to Amazon's MP3s makes iTunes a worse choice for sound quality.

However, all of this all depends on the source file being used to encode the audio. I assume that both Amazon and Apple are getting the same source files.