Amazon’s MP3 store has grown quite a bit since its initial launch back in September. At first, due to their DRM-free nature, they didn’t have the support of all of the Big 4 record labels. But when Sony BMG declared that they would begin to offer their music on Amazon without DRM, Amazon finally got the boost they needed to start dominating digital music sales. They now offer a vast majority of music from all of the Big 4.
You might be thinking, “Well, iTunes is doing this already, so what’s the big deal?” Well, Amazon has a few key advantages over the iTunes Music Store. First, the prices are the same or in some cases lower than iTunes. Second, Amazon’s store is compatible with all MP3 players, due to its music being in the universal MP3 format. Third, Amazon offers higher quality files than iTunes, with music files encoded in 256 kilobit MP3, verses iTunes paltry 128 kilobit AAC. Fourth, Amazon’s store is easier to access than the iTunes store. Since it’s web-based, you can get to their store from any computer with just a web browser and start downloading instantly. You can’t do that with iTunes, since iTunes requires you to download a program to browse its store. This will open up the music downloading world to a vast amount of people who previously would not have downloaded digital audio files, either because they don’t own an iPod or for some other reason. There’s no reason to download content from the iTunes Store if you don’t own an iPod, right? That’s not the case with the Amazon store.
As if that wasn’t enough, Amazon has now said that they are going to acquire Audible. This will make Amazon your one-stop shop for all your audio needs. This, combined with Amazon’s excellent Unbox Video service, will make Amazon a force to be reckoned with in the digital media realm.
Since Amazon is going to acquire Audible, you can probably say goodbye to Audible downloads on iTunes. iTunes is really going to take a beating from Amazon because of all this. If I were Apple, I’d be scared.
