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The Next iTunes?
Dissatisfied iTunes Customers Now Have a Second Option

The days of actually driving to a store to get a CD are just about over. With the advent of iTunes (and later Napster, Rhapsody, etc.), consumers now have an easier, less stressful way to purchase media. However, the main caveat was file types. Originally, the standard file format for music was .mp3, but as Apple unveiled its iPods, they subsequently created their own file type, locked it so that only iPods could read it, and, furthermore, made it the only file type available on the iTunes Store. What does that mean? Basically, it meant that if you owned an iPod and wanted to purchase music online, you had to use the iTunes Store.  Moreover, if you ever switched from an iPod, your music from the iTunes store would not work with your MP3 player. Sound bad enough? Not yet. iTunes also encoded their songs with DRM. That means that Apple had the final say of where you could play it, how often you could burn it to a CD, and how many computers you could play it from. Yes, my friends, all this, and iTunes charged 99cents per song. Doesn’t sound bad to you? Let me remind you that the Wal-Mart’s online music store does not have DRM and nonetheless only costs 88 cents per song. Now does that seem fair? I don’t think so.

Okay, well Apple was more or less sensitive to customers’ concerns and began to offer DRM free [.aac  encoded] songs on their stores. But there was one catch: they raised the price to $1.29 per song. At this point, it’s cheaper to go to the store and buy the single. Needless to say, this was not satisfactory to loyal iTunes customers.

Amazon has now stepped up to the plate and is addressing many of the concerns by launching AmazonMP3. Firstly, Amazon’s music is all DRM free…that’s right, no limitations. Secondly, the music is being offered in the .mp3 format which means it works with pretty much every portable music player. Thirdly, the songs are 256kbs (as opposed to the standard 128) which means they have better quality. Fourthly, and probably most importantly, the cost of songs is only 88 cents. Yes, you read correctly, 88 cents. Yes, you can use it on any MP3 Player. No, it doesn’t have DRM. So what are we still doing on iTunes?

Well, it’s going to take a while for Amazon to get into full swing. All things being equal, Amazon is still in its beta stage and still has a limited library. To test it, I did a search for “Beyonce” (a very well known R&B and pop singer) and I was greeted by a lengthy list of tributes to the artist, some guest appearances by her, and some karaoke remixes. Sound good? No. Beyonce has only released 2 albums on her own and I was unable to find either of them. To be fair to Amazon, I did a song search for her most popular song, “Crazy In Love”. To my dismay, Amazon failed to list it with the exception of some karaoke versions. After that I tried some other well known mainstream artists and was dismayed with the results. If Amazon failed to add artists such as Mariah Carey, we can deduce it will be a while before we see some Christian music there. However, they are rapidly adding to their catalogue; a subsequent visit to the site showed that R&B singer Mary J. Blige was added.

Another major drawback is the lack of help in searching; for the life of me, I cannot seem to figure out how to spell Christina Aguilera’s last name but I never needed to know because I would purposely misspell it and iTunes would ask me “did you mean Christina Aguilera?” Trust me, it’s an underrated feature. In order for me to make the most of Amazon, I need that feature!

Given the drawbacks mentioned, the AmazonMP3 does look promising. Apparently I’m not the only one who thinks so: Steve Jobs announced recently that the price of DRM free songs on the iTunes Store would drop to 99 cents (the same as the DRM encoded music). While AmazonMP3 doesn’t pose too much of a threat to iTunes, it could eventually dethrone it. However, it will not be an easy road; the iPod-iTunes marriage will be tough to divorce. No doubt Apple is, at this very moment, drafting some code that will prohibit iPods from reading the Amazon songs.