Nuts For Music

Exciting news out of Engadget is that Amazon’s MP3 service, which is DRM-free, is going global this year. I have to say this is great. One of my biggest gripes with iTunes downloads is that most of the music I want is restricted by DRM. I want to be able to play my music on any computer I want and be able to create as many CDs for personal use as I want. Do you know how long a CD will last in a car? Not long in mine. The other great thing about Amazon’s MP3 service is the cost. $8.99 for most albums when I checked tonight compared to iTunes $9.99, and not all of iTunes albums are DRM-free. I almost bought 4 Sense Field albums I wanted on Amazon tonight, but opted for iTunes. I didn’t want to download Amazon’s MP3 downloader application.

I’m not sure what this will do in terms of Apple’s dominance of downloadable music. We probably won’t know for a while. The real appeal to Apple’s service is the integration between computer, iPod, and software. Its just easy to use as it all just integrates together. Heck, even my Mom, who is not technically savvy, can use it. You don’t need any separate download service and the music just shows up in your iTunes Library. I’m guessing with Amazon, you’d have to move music around and put it into your library. The more people have to do to use a service on their computer, the less likely they are to use it. That’s one area Apple got it right.