As The Digital River Flows
Posted on | September 29, 2007 at 7:55 am | 1 Comment
So – Amazon debuted it’s own MP3 download store this week. Looks like a step in the right direction to me. The only negative compared to the iTunes music store is lack of selection, but hopefully that will get better as more record companies join in. So far, it looks like only Vivendi and EMI are on board among the majors. And even so, they do carry some artists that iTunes doesn’t, such as Radiohead. All the tracks are DRM-free, so you can pretty much do anything you want with them, which is a huge plus. The iTunes restrictions really bother me. The tracks and albums are oftentimes cheaper than iTunes. Tracks are generally encoded at a higher bitrate than iTunes, so the sound quality is better, though they may take up more space. I haven’t tried it yet, but it looks like it’s easy to buy and download tracks. Though there is a proprietary download application you have to load, at least you can peruse the store using a regular web browser instead of a separate application.
I did a quick perusal of their selection of stuff I like and compared it to iTunes. Both have the entire New Pornographers catalog, though iTunes has some exclusive tracks. iTunes has a much better Blue Öyster Cult selection, though even they don’t carry Club Ninja or Imaginos. iTunes has all the Voxtrot releases (as does eMusic), but Amazon has only one EP.
So, there is definitely room for improvement on that front. And I’m still going to stick with eMusic for now, since they’re a lot cheaper, and most of what I listen to is from indie labels anyway. But I could definitely see myself patronizing the Amazon store if they have something I want that’s not available on eMusic. I haven’t bought anything from iTunes in a long time – those days are probably over. Although iTunes is also moving towards DRM-free, which is a good sign, though their unrestricted tracks are more expensive.
Pet Peeve Of The Day: Having to get up at 5:30 on a Saturday morning for work. Also, when the weather people say there are going to be thunderstorms in the morning and there’s hardly even any clouds in the sky. I want my thunder!
Latre.
Comments
One Response to “As The Digital River Flows”
September 29th, 2007 @ 10:08 pm
Kick!