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Amazon MP3 opens its DRM-free doors to UK consumers

by Parm Mann on 3 December 2008, 14:37

Tags: Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN)

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With a speculative launch date of October having been and gone, Amazon today finally opened its online MP3 store to UK customers.

The iTunes-rivalling store has been highly anticipated due to its promise of over five million DRM-free songs, and its initial shop front has instant appeal - brand-new albums are being offered from £3 each, and singles start at just 59p.

The tracks are available to download as 256kbps variable-bitrate MP3 files and can be played back on virtually any device.

Despite its relatively late arrival on the market, Amazon MP3 is expected to leapfrog similar services from the likes of Play.com and 7Digital as a result of Amazon's sheer quantity of users.

But will it be enough to challenge Apple's dominant iTunes? Its obvious disadvantage, we feel, is that its interface is far-less intuitive than the likes of Apple's iTunes and Microsoft's Zune Marketplace.

Nonetheless, it's another positive step for an increasingly DRM-free marketplace.

Source: official Amazon MP3 store



HEXUS Forums :: 9 Comments

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Finally!

I had a quick search, and finally for once there is a music download service, which offers decent quality MP3s, with no DRM, with a good range of artists (although it could be better), and actually has almost reasonable prices!

With the prices being, in my opinion, a little higher (by about a £1 or so on average, I'd say) than I would have prefered for such an ethereal product, I was surprised to find that you only get a single download of any purchased song or album. Whilst I can see some logic in this and expect this to be the future, I do think that it raises questions, and is going to have to be reflected in changes in related consumer services.
Rosaline
I was surprised to find that you only get a single download of any purchased song or album.

If I buy a CD (or anything else for that matter) from a shop and subsequently lose it, I can't go back and expect them to give me another CD free of charge. I don't have an issue with that. It's up to me to look after my purchases.
They have good prices on new and popular stuff but if you dig a little deeper the prices are similar to iTunes. I also found CDs cheaper than their prices on such things.

But then again I love the shiny, shiny discs!
menthel
They have good prices on new and popular stuff but if you dig a little deeper the prices are similar to iTunes.
Yep, I've found that too. But even then, even if the prices were an exact match, I'd go for Amazon for the DRM-free tracks.
pauldarkside
If I buy a CD (or anything else for that matter) from a shop and subsequently lose it, I can't go back and expect them to give me another CD free of charge. I don't have an issue with that. It's up to me to look after my purchases.
QFT.

The thing that does need to catch up is insurance. I don't believe household insurance would cover lost data on a hard drive, but it would cover the loss of physical media due to fire/flood/theft/etc.