Amazon’s MP3 store nearing global launch?
While Amazon’s quest to take its DRM-free, MP3 store global is public knowledge, the where and the when of that maneuver are closely guarded secrets. The UK’s Telegraph is reporting that execs from Amazon’s MP3 store were in London last week to “thrash out details of the launch with British record company bosses.” Of course this says nothing about timing. On one side of the impending launch is DRM, that hot button of nastiness favored by the music industry and not offered by Amazon MP3. On the other, iTunes, and the music industry’s desire to usurp Apple’s digital dominance while inversely strengthening the bargaining power of its music execs’ over Cupertino. In other words, we may be looking at an imminent launch of a global Amazon MP3 store… and we may not, though we’re leaning towards the former. Read
Popularity: 7% [?]
Review: Napster MP3 store
As we noted yesterday, Napster has now rolled out the world’s largest DRM-free MP3 store. In the spirit of the Amazon MP3 review we ran last year, I thought I would take Napster for a spin to see how the service works from a Mac-user’s perspective.
The first thing to note is that this is a download service. While Napster continues to run its subscription-based service (with downloads limited to Windows computers with Microsoft DRM), you do not need a subscription to purchase MP3s from the Napster Store (though you need an account, of course). Once downloaded the files are just straight 256kbps MP3s that should play without problem on any of a variety of devices. With that in mind, let’s have a look at the Napster experience. Read the rest of this entry
Popularity: 10% [?]
Napster MP3 store to rival iTunes store with 6 million DRM-free tracks
Napster has announced that it is now offering DRM-free MP3 downloads that play on the iPod family and the iPhone. Furthermore, the library is 6 million songs which puts it in the same league as the iTunes Store, and indeed far eclipses the latter in DRM-free offerings. The MP3s are 256kbps and cost 99 cents per track with “most” MP3 albums at $9.95.
Personally, I had long since moved most of my download music buying to Amazon MP3 to take advantage of the DRM-free offerings (and slightly lower price) versus the iTunes Store. The main disadvantage to Amazon MP3 was the smaller library; now with Napster offering a similar sized library to the iTunes Store it will be interesting to see if and how Apple responds. Indeed it will be interesting to see if Apple is able to respond with more DRM-free music since it seems clear that the record companies are basically triangulating against Cupertino in a bid to undermine Apple’s online music dominance.
[via Engadget]
Popularity: 9% [?]
