Oh it's on: Amazon MP3 vs. iTunes
Quite a bit happened Tuesday at T-Mobile's conference introducing the G1, the world's first Android-based phone. Sure, it offers GPS, apps, and an open platform to make every iPhone lover cringe, but one major announcement that many have glossed over is the inclusion of Amazon.com's DRM-free MP3 store pre-loaded on each Android phone.
On October 22, thousands of people will be introduced to DRM-free music and Amazon's store. Many of those people won't know the value of owning DRM-free songs and others may wonder what Amazon's MP3 store is. But once they find out for themselves by downloading songs onto their G1, you can bet that they'll never look back at iTunes again.
Why? It's simple really: iTunes is a locked-down service that will only let you play your songs on Apple devices. Quite the contrary, Amazon's DRM-free store will let you download songs online or now, on the G1, and let you take that song to any other device you wish. Want to add it to your iTunes library? Go for it. Want to put it on your Zune? What are you waiting for?
Sure, we've known about this for quite some time--the store already has 6 million songs, you know--but there is a huge base of people who have used iTunes for so long that they don't even know what's out there. Some may not want to switch and will continue using iTunes, but now that Amazon's store is slowly gaining some of the limelight, Apple should start paying more attention to Amazon's offering.
There are two main issues working against iTunes: its songs are slightly more expensive (generally) than the same songs on Amazon's service and the record labels don't want to play nice.
It may only be 10 cents, but saving that much actually matters to people. And when you can buy a song and bring it with you wherever you'd like, it only makes sense that you'd want to buy an Amazon song instead of the same track from iTunes.
But the only reason all this is possible is because the record labels simply don't like Apple. Apple has tried to make its case and coax the record labels into a DRM-free deal, but they wouldn't budge--except for EMI--until Amazon came along.
And while Amazon has been successful and the company is making in-roads, it's still a long way from competing with iTunes, the world's largest music retailer. But the only reason why is because Amazon didn't have the platform it needed to promote its store and become a real competitor to iTunes.
Think about it--Amazon doesn't have a PMP to link its store to and until today, it didn't have cell phone integration. But now it does have that cell phone integration and it's in the same market as the iPhone's iTunes app. Granted, the G1 probably won't sell nearly as well as the iPhone 3G, but we can't forget that the G1 is just one device of many that Google and its partners will be rolling out over the next year.
And that's when the real competition will start.
Google's foray into the cell phone market is just as much a battle with Microsoft as it is with Apple and Research In Motion. The company is providing software for vendors and now that Amazon has signed on, it's following Google in its drive to become the most powerful mobile software company in the space.
Can it happen? It's debatable. Apple and RIM have a stranglehold on the cell phone market and we can't count Microsoft out yet either. But given consumer desire for a touch-screen device that can "do it all", there's no reason to suggest Android can't become the platform of choice a few years from now.
And if that happens, look for Amazon to become the music service of choice around the same time.
One of the keys to Apple's success with iTunes was its ability to provide hardware users with a real need to use its software. Now that the Amazon store is available on Android devices, Amazon has that luxury too.
The fight is on. Amazon isn't just an online service to buy songs any longer and it's slowly moving into the space where most believe the future really is. G1 owners will be able to download songs directly to their phones and become acquainted with all the benefits that go along with buying songs from Amazon's store.
It may not be panic time yet, but Apple better keep a close eye on Amazon's partnerships and growth over the next few months. Once more people catch wind of DRM-free songs at a generally cheaper price, Apple may be faced with some serious trouble.
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Don Reisinger is a technology columnist who has written about everything from HDTVs to computers to Flowbee Haircut Systems. Don is a member of the CNET Blog Network, and posts at The Digital Home. He is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure.
G1 is garbage. It sealed its fail when it choose tmobile has a carrier.
You right about Amazon MP3 though, also best buy bought napster.
New zunes are pretty interesting, now that they cancelled the 160GB model. There is close to no reason to get an ipod nano or classic over a zune.
OS is awesome, the more people are involved the better it is. G1 might come out this time bad, but wait till you see G2 .
TTYL.
I wrote few posts on http://www.livecrunch.com
if you are interested.
-Don
http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2008/09/23/video-android-walkthrough-on-t-mobile-g1
And how hard has Apple fought for DRM free music? Anything more than Job's letters? iTunes DRM keeps a lot of iPod users in the fold.
Point taken on the Apple DRM front. I do think, though, that Apple wants to get rid of DRM on iTunes and behind the scenes the company has been more proactive than we probably know. I think iTunes DRM was important when Apple built their product up, but now, it's a hindrance.
-Don
I am an iTunes user and an iPhone owner. I own a MacBook Pro 17" and use it in a corporate environment. However, the idea of DRM-free music is attractive. To the average Joe, though (heh) DRM isn't an issue since the "cool" factor will keep them with Apple anyway.
Android and its accompanying music services have a real change now; the threat is becoming like Linux on the desktop - a favorite of the geeky crowd. Only time will tell. Personally, I'm pulling for DRM-free music and competition in the market to bring down Apple's inflated prices.
Then toss it into iTunes, or Windows Media player, or whatever you decide to use, how you decide to use it (please be legal about it though).
Everyone needs to get out from under DRM.
What do you think?
-Don
Will the FUD please stop! iTunes music plays on all Windows PCs, no matter the manufacturer. I won't even give the benefit of the doubt to people any more. To say otherwise is an outright lie.
price? hmmm, ten cents...let's see, I can buy what with that nowadays? gotta spend ten bucks at Amazon to save enough to buy a taco at the Bell (don't forget the tax). sarcasm aside, I hope Apple does lower their price and beat the living crap outta the record labels to drop the DRM. it's still a pain and pretty much worthless anyway.
oh, and did I mention (like some others have elsewhere) that the quality is lower than Apple's AAC format? guess that doesn't matter to some....
-Don
Yes, Amazon can be cheaper. Not always, but about 90% of the time they are cheaper. However the Mp3 format that Amazon uses has a noticeable reduction in quality compared to the AAC format that iTunes uses.
Buy the cheapest then ***** about poor quality. The Wal-mart way. The new American way.
Amazon.com offers the option of music CDs, vastly superior sound quality and a convenient format, at reasonable prices.
Apple was selling iPods long before iTunes was the #1 music retailer so people aren't just buying iPod because they are locked into iTunes - I think that's one of the biggest concerns I have with most all of these articles...
-Don
-Don
As a long time user of Palms, Blackberry and Creative (going back to the orginal Zen) I am totally sold on the iPhone + itune's ease of use (having shunned it for years). It's going to be critical for someone to address that (it's going to be difficult of Google to do this in the cloud to the scale of customer base Apple has).
Apple needs to start showing off and developing their key competitive advantage; that is the ability to have a complete lifestyle solution. I.e. iphone + itunes + apple TV/mac or pc connected to HDTV, all controlled from the iphone (the ultimate universal remote). It's very painful/time consuming to manage media outside of itunes. I tried combinations of Creative software and Windows media player but they either don't provide all the functionality or just don't sync well.
Google and Amazon need to realize that an end-to-end solution is key.
-Don
According to Gartner, (Q2-08) Nokia has a worldwide smartphone market share of 47.5%, RIM/Blackberry has a 17.4% smartphone share, and Apple/iPhone's worldwide smartphone market share is in the Others category.
As for total cell phone sales, IDC (Q2-08) puts Nokias worldwide market share at 39.9%, and the worldwide market share for both Apple/iPhone and RIM/Blackberry is in the Others category.
Worldwide, Nokia dominates both the smartphone market and the dumphone market. Nobody else is even close. According to ICD, Nokia sold 437.1 million phones last year alone.
When you look at a real smartphone and the market, RIM rules the space.
-Don
Nokia's "smartphones" are no such thing in the true definition. Even a crap Nokia 6000-series cell phone can do basic "web browsing" (hope you like text-only), can play video (well, animated gif-like files), can play music (well, if you like MIDI files a lot), and can of course receive email (T-Mobile for instance used to have it rigged to relay text messages to your phone via an email addy based on your phone number... but anything after 180 characters got cut off). Oh, and you can play games on it. All on a 200x100-some-odd pixel screen about 2" square (if you were lucky).
Trust me - that ain't a real smartphone.
/P
I live in NYC and most people I see are using their iPod or iPhone which has to be synced up with their music/PC anyway.
Frankly, I like Amazon's lack of a DRM noose because I want to move music from device to device as well as computer to computer. I do, however, like iTunes for my TV shows etc.
Amazon's interface is not as easy as iTunes, but anyone with a slightly technical inclination could use it with ease.
-Don
Column fodder, perhaps?
-Don
To ibeetle, at the 256 bit rate Amazon is cheaper than iTunes. Apple charges $1.29 for DRM free mp3's at 256kbps whereas Amazon only charges $0.89 to 0.99 for the same track.
To john55440, while Symbian does dominate on the world stage, it does not fair so well in the US. The current leaders in the US smartphone market are RIM and Apple. Take a moment to walk around and see how many Curves, Pearls, and iphones you see.
-Don
The songs I purchase on iTunes are DRM free as well. I can play them on any device that supports AAC. I'm not tied to Apple products like Don would like you to believe.
-Don
Seaspray, you're cluless, as most music available on iTunes now is DRM free.
Apple has made every effort to drop DRM but the labels have made a very public effort to counter Apple market supremacy by providing their competition with an artificial advantage: DRM-free tracks that they won't allow Apple to sell. They want Apple to adopt variable pricing for single tracks i.e. a hot track would cost upwards of 2.99 or more. Apple refuses to break from the .99 standard per track.
It's also good to point out that Apple's music store isn't a profit driver for them at all. While they love selling content, they love selling hardware even more. As long as you're using their software to manage your tunes and their hardware to play them, they're going to be happy.
G1 won't cut it as a music phone. There isn't a headphone jack and there isn't any desktop software for sync and management.
Err, what?
1. You search for a song.
2. If it has an MP3 version, you click "Download Album" or click Buy Now next to the track.
3. Song downloads using Media Downloader, but you can play it using any media player.
How is that challenging and not "simple and nearly seamless"?
Seems to me like some people are just plain lazy, or they want bells and whistles that quite frankly, Windows Media Player and Winamp both have. Playlists? WMP has that, so does Winamp. Genre? Both have that. Tagging? Both have that. There's literally....literally...nothing that iTunes offers over standard players except the brand name.
As far as the quality of music, I'm not an audiophile. The sound quality from Amazon MP3 is perfect. Anything more and the majority of listeners CANNOT tell the difference.
Amazon MP3 = what Sony Connect used to be, without the proprietary software/interface and DRM. I love it.
-Don
-Don
2) there's very likely to be a headphone jack in it somewhere.
3) It's worth a look.
/P
-Don
I do notice that at practically every store that sells CDs -- Best Buy, FYE, etc. -- no one is in the CD aisles. What gives? Are you the only person buying CDs now? Or are they all buying discs on Amazon like yourself?
-Don
- by the Otter September 23, 2008 1:03 PM PDT
- Sounds great, but there?s something people aren?t noticing: QUALITY. iTunes uses MP4 to Amazon?s severely outdated MP3. You know what? I actually *can* tell the difference. Try it yourself and see.
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- by dd13reis September 23, 2008 1:43 PM PDT
- True. Some can tell a difference, but by and large, many can't. You know why? There's a whole generation of people that never grew up with lossless audio, so they just can't tell a difference. Sad but true. Let's hear it for FLAC!
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- by Magallanes September 23, 2008 2:19 PM PDT
- Yes, mp4 is better to mp3 because 4 >3
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- by Composer_1777 September 24, 2008 12:35 AM PDT
- Lol, how can you tell the diference using an I pod which hasen;t updated their sound quality in over 4 years... Yeah its all in your head.
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Showing 1 of 3 pages (119 Comments)-Don
lol.
The quality of the mp3 depend in several aspect, from the bitrate, to the encoding option and the encoding program (Lame).
A good encoded mp3 is EQUAL in quality to a aac, flac or any other overhyped "lossless" format. You can't notice the difference!. Not at least using a crappy DAC (such iphone, ipod, zen and any other portable music player) and using a regular speaker (headphone).