Amazon MP3 – The Music Store of Choice!
My loyalties have now switched to Spotify, but before it was with Amazon MP3. This article has been sitting on my todo list for too long, before I leave the service forever, I think it may be a good time to write this post.
The market leader in the music download business is sadly still iTunes, and its unlikely anytime soon it will change. Why is iTunes the market leader, when its the worst in its market, although same can be said for Windows 
Consumers need to open their eyes for the better service, and that is Amazon.
Both Amazon and iTunes provide the same-sort-of-service, with iTunes making it easier with syncing to your device. Music selection is pretty much exactly the same, both retaining the major record companies. Its the pricing and DRM where the differences lie.
On Pricing, Amazon tends to be cheaper, offering tracks as low as 49p to as high as 89p. While iTunes is higher at 69p t0 £1.20! Why is iTunes more! Your getting the same music, but at a lower bit rate on iTunes (128kbps on iTunes, 256 on Amazon).
DRM, my favourite topic, if you ask any of my 'geek' friends! Though in the past few days I have become a hypocrite *cough* Spotify *cough*. iTunes in the past has in the past been dreadful with this, but in recent years, they have let go of some restrictions. However, music bought off iTunes is still full of DRM. Watermarking, requiring authentication to listen to purchased music and using a file format only used by Apple. My brother in the past few weeks has been a victim of Apple's DRM, and many others have when switching MP3 players or computers. Amazon is totally DRM free, allowing users to listen to their music where ever they want. My article about iTunes DRM can be found here.
Basically, STOP USING ITUNES! It maybe easier to use, for getting songs on your iPod. It is expensive, lower quality and full of DRM. iTunes was the service to use years ago, now its Amazon MP3!
iTunes is not totally DRM-Free!
I have never been a fan of iTunes. It does have a great interface and buying and syncing music to your iPod is seamless. My main issue with iTunes is a problem I spotted early on which prevented me from using the store and the device. iTunes music used to be DRM, Digital Rights Management, which means the provider has control when and how you use that file. I did not want to be involved in that service, for mainly two reason. One, what happens if iTunes disappears, what happens to all my music??? Second, if I wanted to listen to music on a computer without iTunes or another device which is not an iPod, I can not.
Thankfully a few years later, a music store arrived which provided high quality DRM-free MP3 music. Amazon MP3 is the greatest thing to happen to digital music! I can play these tracks on any device I have (my three computers which run different OSes, my phone and my PSP) and if Amazon MP3 disappeared, I can still play all my music!
iTunes quickly followed suit and changed all their music to DRM-free. However, is iTunes music completely DRM-free like Amazon. The answer is NO! iTunes music has some DRM removed, mainly allowing you to play your music files on a different media player other than iTunes, but that is it. However, you will have to find a media player which can play iTunes strange file format. Instead of using the very popular industry standard, MP3, it uses .m4a. Which you will find it not supported by many players. With MP3 files, you know that you can play them any player, computer and device, with m4a you can not.
One major DRM trait is how users obtain their music. If you need to download your music, you still have to use iTunes and bypass their authentication service. Which means you can not download music onto that computer, unless its been authenticated and you can only authorise 5 computers. This is still DRM, Apple controlling how and when you can download your music. What happens iTunes goes, you wont be able to use this authentication service to get your tracks.
The finally DRM trait by Apple is what they do to every single music track you own. They use a method called Water-marking, which means to put the user's data in the file. Apple put the customers details into the file, so if that file ends up on a file sharing website, they can trace it back to the customer. This is still DRM in the sense of controlling and track your data.
Apple still use a strange file format with DRM surrounding it. Apple have made good steps forward, by allowing you to not require iTunes to listen to the music. Though they have a long way to go DRM-Free!
Me!
Ed Hewitt, 19, Studying @ Derby Uni, Blogger, Ubuntu user, Columnist & Podcaster for FCM, Gamer, Admin on Gfire.- Spotify is saved. Usa by the end of the year!
- Back home from work. 2:30am, time for IT crowd!
- Half way through my shift. Time for a double expesso.
