News Amazon unveils DRM-free music store

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2007/05/17/amazon_unveils_drm-less_music_store/1



The Amazon music store, or whatever they decide to finally name it, will offer millions of songs from in excess of 12,000 record labels, including EMI.

 

But one thing they have to do is get the price right. It'd ideally want to be cheaper than iTunes as most of the purchasing public don't know/care about what DRM even is and will just say "well, iTunes is cheaper".

 

emusic.com is DRM-free as well.. i wonder how this will compare.. bigger selection?

 

I think you mean "for our own limited use"

 

You mean, the music industry is actually going to start giving us what we want? Not sure if I can handle not feeling like a criminal if I go legal or download...

 

Outstanding, great news.

Now let's see a little transatlantic price parity.

Not relevant to the subject at hand, but Adobe's digital video production bundle is either £1500 or $1500.

Not right.

Phil

 

With iTunes saying "We want no DRM" and AmazonTunes saying "We won't stock DRM" I think it wont be long before we see the end of it. Amazon has enough market power to get what they want on this one I feel.

 

^^ what he said.

Though for me if it even matches the price of iTunes DRMed stuff, has decent quality (as good as MP3 gets anyway), and is available in Canada, I'd be interested.

 

This sounds good. All I hope is that it won't be limited to the US. It will kind of suck if its not available in Australia.

 

I will never buy any music that is infected with DRM. I agree with the price issue though, cheaper = we win, more expensive = iTunes wins.

 

Even if it's the same price as iTunes, I think it'll be we win, as well. I think those people who buy stuff on iTunes probably also shop on Amazon. It'll just be the Apple mindshare that Amazon has to compete with. Which I must admit is a significant hurdle...

 

i bet it will be more expensive and will only be available in the USA.

edit: but i hope i am wrong.

 

I don't want mp3's EMI I want wave files encoded at stupid quality! some of us have expensive hi-fi gear and mp3's even at 320kbs are NASTY compared to what the mixing desk is putting out. I mean SACD is the best one can get in disk format (easily) so I would expect at least that in download format (sans DRM which has killed SACD in the hi-fi scene as SACD players have no digital outs). Video quality has increased massivly in the past few years (although it looks like the new formats are flopping due to DRM and lack of interest in blowing a huge sum of money on them) why has audio quality decreased in the mainstream?

at this rate I'm going to have to build a home studio and record the bands myself to get the quality I crave! :O