2008 Woodie Awards
New Amazon music store competition for iTunes
By Brenda Paiz (The Daily Athenaeum, West Virginia U.)
Issue date: 10/14/07 Section: Entertainment
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Amazon.com announced early last week that it will be launching a public beta of Amazon MP3, a digital music download store that contains millions of MP3s for a competing price of 89 cents.
In addition to thousands of free tunes, users will be able to download music that is free of digital rights management (DRM) software, which makes the purchased songs compatible with any MP3 player, including the iPod and Zune.
Lower prices and restriction-free software allow for competition among the leading digital download stores available.
Download prices from Apple's iTunes range from 99 cents to $1.29, depending on the DRM status. Also, purchased songs on iTunes are not compatible with all digital music players.
Apple did not release a comment regarding new competition with Amazon MP3.
West Virginia University student Liz Porter, 19, said that with her options expanding, she might have to reconsider which digital music store to purchase downloads from.
"Until this point, I've always used iTunes because it was reasonably priced, legal and it worked with my iPod, but 10 cents adds up when you download a lot of music," Porter said.
Entire albums will be priced starting at $5.99 and the top 100 albums of that given week will be available for $8.99 or less. Also, file sizes have been encoded at 256 kilobits per second for high audio quality and easy manageability for customers, according to Amazon.com.
The launch of Amazon MP3 will not only strike up new competition for iTunes but also will change the way customers view the prices of songs, said Alex Williams, director of community development at Splashcast media.
"The price for a song has been artificially set from iTunes at 99 cents," Williams said. "But with Amazon starting songs at 89 cents, it makes us question what defines the actual price."
The debate over who should set the price of a song is going to effect artists, record labels, customers and the entire industry, Williams said.
In addition to thousands of free tunes, users will be able to download music that is free of digital rights management (DRM) software, which makes the purchased songs compatible with any MP3 player, including the iPod and Zune.
Lower prices and restriction-free software allow for competition among the leading digital download stores available.
Download prices from Apple's iTunes range from 99 cents to $1.29, depending on the DRM status. Also, purchased songs on iTunes are not compatible with all digital music players.
Apple did not release a comment regarding new competition with Amazon MP3.
West Virginia University student Liz Porter, 19, said that with her options expanding, she might have to reconsider which digital music store to purchase downloads from.
"Until this point, I've always used iTunes because it was reasonably priced, legal and it worked with my iPod, but 10 cents adds up when you download a lot of music," Porter said.
Entire albums will be priced starting at $5.99 and the top 100 albums of that given week will be available for $8.99 or less. Also, file sizes have been encoded at 256 kilobits per second for high audio quality and easy manageability for customers, according to Amazon.com.
The launch of Amazon MP3 will not only strike up new competition for iTunes but also will change the way customers view the prices of songs, said Alex Williams, director of community development at Splashcast media.
"The price for a song has been artificially set from iTunes at 99 cents," Williams said. "But with Amazon starting songs at 89 cents, it makes us question what defines the actual price."
The debate over who should set the price of a song is going to effect artists, record labels, customers and the entire industry, Williams said.
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