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Amazon downloads today takes a fight to Apple's iTunes with the launch of its AmazonMP3 music store.
Unlike the itunes store, which mostly sells songs DRM-protected versions of music tracks, including
those from EMI, the AmazonMP3 store sticks to its name selling, you guessed it... MP3s.
You can check out the
Amazon MP3 store here.
You see, Standard MP3s have no copy protection, and this means they can be played on any device you own - ipods, Zunes, whatever. This, Amazon thinks, is a compelling proposition.
A few weeks back, Music giant EMI take the software locks off its digital music sold via download sites such as apple's ITunes.
This includes the "premium" versions (higher quality than existing downloads) of EMI tracks will not contain the digital locks common to songs available via many online sites.
The reason behind this is because most download sites currently try to limit piracy by restricting what people can do with music they buy.
The Amazonmp3 songs come in 256-kbps format, making them as good quality as the non-DRM songs that Apple's iTunes sells from EMI on the Itunes store, and significantly better than other paid downloads.
However, Amazon mp3 downloads has a much better choice of music than Apple's itunes - over 2 million tracks without the copy protection, including the full catalogue from Universal.
This means that top albums from artists like 'the Definitive Collection' by Stevie Wonder and Ben Harper's Lifeline are now DRM free for the mere sum of $8.99.
Of course, as with the vast majority of these online stores, purchasing is left to United States of Amercia (USA) citizens only - clearly, those who live outside the States (www.Amazon.co.uk) don't matter a jot to Amazon or its partners.
So, for all the good this new service brings, it's useless to the majority of the world until Amazon starts offering via its partners.
Many Consumers would be prepared to pay a higher price for a piece of music they can play on any player.
Hopefully, it's only a matter of time before the industry releases all music without any protection. This is the next big step forward in the digital music revolution - the movement to completely interoperable DRM-free music.
The right thing to do is to tear down all walls that precluded interoperability by going DRM-free and that starts here today with amazonmp3 launch. Contrary to early speculation there was no announcement about music from the Beatles going online in any format.
This means that consumers will be able to move music tracks between different music players at will. For example, EMI songs bought via iTunes could be played on iPods and other players too.
Although this is possible today it typically involves converting downloaded tracks into neutral formats - which as a result means a loss of quality.
By stepping away from Apple's Itunes store and Amazon's own Unbox video services in only selling songs that are available in the unguarded MP3 format -- amazonmp3 virtually allowing every music phone or portable media player to support its content without limits to CD burning or file copying.
The concept of an MP3-only download store is far from new, as the online retailer was keen to stress that its service was designed to help users accustomed to the ease of use of stores built into music software, particularly iTunes.
A custom program known as the MP3 Downloader runs in the background for both Mac and Windows users, and seamlessly transfers songs bought from Amazon MP3 into either iTunes or Windows Media Player if they are present on the system.
Although, the real attractions may be the price and the catalog. Every song is encoded at higher quality as an MP3 at 256 kilobits per second. As high as Amazon's rival Wal-Mart and slightly behind the 256Kbps AAC files of iTunes Plus.
Songs are no more expensive than at most online stores, selling for 99 cents each. More than half of the music in the collection sells for 89 cents per song, according to Amazon.
In contrast, an iTunes Plus song costs $1.29 when bought outside of an album, or more than 40 percent higher.