Amazon is making some serious headway in creating a true rival for the iTunes Music store. In a lot of ways the Amazon store is superior to the iTunes store as it stands today. Some some tracks are cheaper than their iTunes counterparts, and and now Amazon has a much wider selection of DRM free music.
Warners announced yesterday that you can now download their entire music catalog via Amazon in DRM free MP3 format. This is another strong move from the record industry that suggests they may be attempting to move away from Apple and iTunes.
Will this hurt iPod sales? I don’t see how. Regardless of where you get your music there has yet to be a true competitor to the iPod line. The latest Zunes might come close, but they still seem a generation behind their iPod counterparts.
I do like the Amazon store, and I hope that they continue to do well because competition is good for the industry as a whole. If it takes Amazon becoming a true contender for the digital music crown to get DRM off of my music, I’m all for it.
3 thoughts on “Warners announces DRM free MP3s…only from Amazon”
I like that Apple was the one with the idea and they can’t do it. So ironic it makes me laugh.
I feel bad for Apple and Steve. I don’t know why the music industry hates Steve so much. After all, he is the one behind the digital music revolution. Steve must pull something big next Macworld.
@ Leo
I found it funny too that it was all Job’s idea to drop DRM and they won’t even let him do it (some companies at least)
At first it just seemed idiotic, but now I see it for what it really is. Its the record companies way of removing the iTunes stranglehold on the sales of digital music. By offering the music slightly cheaper and DRM free in another store while at the same time forcing iTunes to lock all its music. Sadly their tactic won’t work on me. I never had a problem with DRM, I think its a dumb idea but its never really inconvenienced me, not to mention there are easy methods of removing it.
What does it for me is how convenient and easy iTunes is. I know amazon is easy too, but having to download their app, then go to the site and download the files to then initiate the transfer, then loading them into iTunes. Its a hell of a lot easier to do it all within iTunes and most of the time with a few clicks.