Comments on: First Impressions: Amazon MP3 Beta

By: Amazon launches DRM-free MP3 Store — Evan Sims

Amazon launches DRM-free MP3 Store — Evan Sims — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 22:19:49 +0000

[...] Paul Stamatiou has a great write up on the new service, and a handy tip or keeping your purchases managed in [...]

By: Abbi

Abbi — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 14:40:31 +0000

Well, Iâ€™d like to use it, but Iâ€™m outside of the US. ;)

agree

By: Apple Mac HQ » Blog Archive » Kicking the tires of Amazon MP3

Apple Mac HQ » Blog Archive » Kicking the tires of Amazon MP3 — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 14:39:20 +0000

[...] purchase from iTunes, Amazon MP3 is worth your time to check out. The reviews are out, and so far they are [...]

By: Kevin Peterson

Kevin Peterson — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 15:32:19 +0000

I’ll probably give this a whirl. I don’t buy much music (mostly because of DRM). When I buy something, I want to use it how I want (within the law..)

By: Paul Stamatiou

Paul Stamatiou — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 20:10:11 +0000

It was on their press release, but you’re right, it’s hard to find otherwise.

By: Dave

Dave — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 20:07:18 +0000

Thanks Paul; couldn’t find that on their site earlier.

By: Paul Stamatiou

Paul Stamatiou — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 18:01:34 +0000

as for bitrate “all songs are encoded at 256 kilobits per second”

By: Dave

Dave — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 17:58:49 +0000

Any word as to what the bitrate is on the encoded tracks and what encoder they are using? I know I’m being geeky, but if I’m going to pay for music I want to know what quality of a product I’m getting.

By: Frank Staheli

Frank Staheli — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 15:31:57 +0000

I’ve spent probably $300 in the last couple years for music, because I think it’s fair. I appreciate that I can download only the tracks I like. But I always hated DRM (even though I still downloaded music). So it’s great that we now have DRM-free music. Music pirates now have much less of a reason to be pirates.

By: Techie Entertainment | Keener Living

Techie Entertainment | Keener Living — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 15:28:13 +0000

[...] Stamatiou’s first impressions of Amazon mp3 beta. Paul has a great writeup on Amazon’s new, DRM-less music store. Definitely worth checking [...]

By: Andreas

Andreas — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 09:08:06 +0000

Well, I’d like to use it, but I’m outside of the US. ;)

Andreas

By: Sean McBride

Sean McBride — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 04:42:26 +0000

Man, this is almost totally awesome. The only problem for me: no safety net. I can only download the files once, and then I’m responsible for backups. If I buy the physical album I get the security of having an original fidelity backup AND the bonus of having the case + booklet and all that Jazz.

If they allowed you to redownload your files, I would use this exclusively.

By: Blake Brannon

Blake Brannon — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 03:42:31 +0000

Hard to beat the iTunes Music Store interface. Steve Jobs constantly says it and it is backed up by Apple’s products, “Apple is a software company.” I don’t spend much on music so it isn’t a huge gain for me to switch.

By: Mike Vail

Mike Vail — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 00:22:05 +0000

Still no technical itch or dom and roland.

By: weisheng

weisheng — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 21:02:01 +0000

Just read that they don’t verify your address with your credit card, meaning you can enter a fake state and postal code if you don’t live in the US. This means the songs are available for international purchase! Going to try it out later.

By: Abhishek Tiwari

Abhishek Tiwari — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 15:28:46 +0000

$0.89 on Amazon or $0.99 on iTunes…

If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

By now you must already know that Amazon has launched its MP3 download service to contend with the likes of iTunes. This has been a much anticipated move by Ama…

By: 2007 September 26 | Abhishek Tiwari

2007 September 26 | Abhishek Tiwari — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 15:28:25 +0000

[...] I am not going to review this service again for you. I am sure you can read Om Malik’s or Paul Stamatiou’s great posts or play with the service yourself. Although I am taking a critical look at the service [...]

By: Leon Freyermuth

Leon Freyermuth — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 14:56:21 +0000

How do you spend that much money on music? I know that I will definitely switch to Amazon for music. All of the drm crap is really annoying me.

By: Amazon.com One-Ups Apple with DRM-Free Music Store

Amazon.com One-Ups Apple with DRM-Free Music Store — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 13:45:38 +0000

[...] Link via 43 Folders, Paul Stamatiou. [...]

By: Charlie

Charlie — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 13:20:19 +0000

Nice write-up. I tried using E-music and hated it, and have stuck with iTunes. I definitely think I’ll be trying out Amazon.

Has anyone else noticed new albums coming out seem to be priced at $9.99 the week they came out? I bought the new Foo Fighters CD from Best buy yesterday because it was the same price as iTunes. Other new CDs were going for $9.99 as well. Same at Target.

By: Adam

Adam — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 07:32:27 +0000

@Tanner: (via daringfireball.net)

Bill Carr, Amazonâ€™s vice president for digital music, 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.

Slightly better than Apple’s DRM-free iTunes Plus files contain your name and iTunes user account ID, (which is generally an email address).

By: William Couch

William Couch — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 07:05:41 +0000

Agreed. I, too, have been a pretty diehard iTunes user having purchased many a song through the service, but the high-quality encoding, DRM-free and impressive catalog might cause a shift in the winds…

By: Tanner Powell

Tanner Powell — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 04:21:09 +0000

I’ve been looking for the MUNICH soundtrack for a while. I couldn’t find a torrent of it, refused to pay for locked 128 AAC on iTMS, so I picked it up as soon as I read about this service on engadget this morning. Really easy, relatively cheap, playing on my two computers + my iPod, sound quality is excellent, probably what I would have ripped the CD at anyways. There’s no authorizing or de-authorizing bullshit to mess with… the first music I’ve (legally) downloaded in a long time, and will probably use again.
I’d be interested to know if the text/numbers in the comments section is the only “watermark” or whatever in the files. Can anyone shed any light on this?

By: Adventure Sandbox » Kicking the tires of Amazon MP3 Beta

Adventure Sandbox » Kicking the tires of Amazon MP3 Beta — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 04:02:43 +0000

[...] Beta is worth some of your time to check it out. The reviews are beginning to come in, and so far they are [...]

By: Josh Bancroft

Josh Bancroft — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 03:55:48 +0000

I set up a Smart Playlist because of your post, and it worked great with the first tracks I bought – KT Tunstall. But I bought a couple of songs from Vienna Teng, and they don’t contain Amazom.com in the comments field. Only a 9 digit number, like 200986127.

Oh, well. So much for the magic playlist! :-)