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.
posted by bill at 7:26 pm
I just read an interesting article over at Ars Technica entitled A brave new world: the music biz at the dawn of 2008. The information the author goes over isn’t really earth shattering in my opinion. Most people already see that the sales of music is moving faster and faster to the digital medium from the overpriced, and frankly outdated, compact disc. The music industry is losing money not because people download music for free, but because they’re buying only what they want via services like iTunes or eMusic. So people are buying their music, like I’d like to see in the cable television industry, “a la carte”. Why is this?
I’ll tell you why. Most mainstream albums were, and still are to a degree, made for the quick sale of a CD. Consumers hear that first “big single” on the radio or television and they go out and buy the album. They get home and listen to their favorite song first then try out the rest of the album. Guess what I think happens next? They might find 2 or 3 songs out of 10 or 12 that are good. Britney Spears comes to mind here. She sells albums with those catchy singles but do you ever hear anyone say how awesome any of the other tracks are? No.
So what does this mean? It means the recording industry needs to change gears. Let artists be creative. Let them record albums they want to record and you’ll get quality albums not just one or two catchy tunes. You can’t make a ton of money selling singles. For that fact, why do you think single albums are so expensive to begin with? You’ll make money selling albums. So make more quality albums and you’ll see more revenue. You see how “less known” bands such as Band Of Horses
and Rogue Wave
record a quality, complete album. They have to. That’s how they’ll sell their music. It’s not being played on the radio much, if at all, so that “hit singe” won’t do them any good to help them sell another 10 or 12 songs. The quality album that people talk about makes them their money, the way it should be.
posted by bill at 7:16 pm
I’m sure I don’t have to tell you how expensive it is to be a “music junkie”. Consider if you were to buy 20 CDs (which I consider a conservative number) at the store at an average of $12.75 per CD a year, you’d be spending $255.00 annually. That’s a lot more money than most people have. Even considering you can buy a song on iTunes for 0.99, its still expensive (especially for those of us that want complete albums). So I did some searching. Aside from using a site in Russia, like the old allofmp3.com, a good alternative could be to buy used CDs on SecondSpin.com
SecondSpin.com buys and sells used CD’s, DVD’s, and Video Games. Individual CD’s (non-box sets) seem to sell anywhere between $2.00 and $9.00. So at the high end, you’d be saving $3.75 off of the average. Not bad. Here are some albums I own that I found:
As you can tell, there are some decent deals to be had if you don’t mind second hand music. They have a strict quality control policy which keeps the defect rate to less than 1%, so everything is 100% guaranteed. Nice!
One thing to , I don’t think you’ll find some obscure bands or new releases, which makes sense. Second, shipping seems a little steep, especially if you order a lot of CDs. Ground is $2.75 plus an extra $0.45 per additional CD. So if you order 10 CDs, its $7.25. Well, that doesn’t seem expensive until you realize they guarantee delivery in 1-3 weeks! Ouch. To get faster service, expect to pay quite a bit more. But if you’re getting a steal on the music and you don’t mind waiting for delivery, this might be the place for you.
posted by bill at 10:00 am
That’s right, I’m nuts. Nuts for music! I started this site to share my thoughts on the music I listen to. Each day I probably spend 14+ hours listening to music either at work, at home, or in my car. I’ll try to cover a different band, album, or a random music topic as often as I can.
posted by bill at 7:01 pm
