Skepticum

The other day I gave Amazon MP3 Beta service a test run and I was highly impressed. The download times are uber-competitive, I experienced no hiccups of interaction between the Amazon mp3 download software and MS XP, the download interface is clean and easy, and I truly appreciate the fact that Amazon lets me pick the folder where I want the music placed, as well as immediately loading the music to the iTunes library. And not to forget I saved some money.

For downloading albums Amazon requires a downloader. As I said the downloader doesn’t appear to negatively impact XP performance and installing it was a 2 minute process. I only mention this because iTunes for PC has become my most unfriendly piece of software so it begs a comparison. Some have claimed the unfriendly interaction between iTunes and MS software is an Apple ploy to get iTunes users to buy macs. I know nothing of any ploys except that iTunes for PC has become a CPU and memory hog and is all in all a piece-of-shit software.

While I give lower grades to the iTunes downloading interface, some reviews said checking out of Amazon was “clumsier” than iTunes and I beg to different. Both require accounts to be set up, and iTunes even requires the latest version of iTunes for purchases. Amazon offers 1-click check out which is similar in terms of number of clicks with iTune’s check out.

From where I stand there are 5 major differences between the two services, and these differences tip the balance in favor of Amazon:

1. Amazon mp3 music is DRM-free (free of digital rights management encoding). This not only allows the music to be played on any digital media, or managed at the leasure of the buyer, but also is more energy efficient. Simply put, your gadget’s battery (and sanity) may last longer.
2. Amazon is the leader in enhanced website user experience. When it comes to web 2.0 integration Amazon has the lead to iTunes and by default the interaction between customer and product is enhanced on the Amazon sites. An example is that with the latest iTunes software song previews are buggy. Amazon’s song previews offered better streaming quality and faster download times.
3. Amazon’s prices beat iTunes in two ways. One, Amazon doesn’t charge tax on the downloaded music, iTunes does. Two, Amazon cut the cost of a majority of downloads to $0.89. At least that’s the reality at my zip code location.
4. Amazon download speed times were faster by about 1 minute per album as compared to iTunes, under similar network traffic circumstances. One minute is not much when dealing with one music album but it can make a difference when dealing with heavier downloads.
5. Amazon’s music choices are not as varied as iTunes but we can give Amazon a break being that this is just a beta.

Only time will tell how Amazon will continue to perform though. For now I give the Amazon MP3 download service two thumbs up. The smooth start of the service promises to attract a large number of their already loyal customers as well as additional music deals and an increase in the number of songs offered. And Apple may profit from increased sales in their iPod department now that there is more and cheaper music available.

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