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Price war Amazon launches 69-cent MP3 store for top-selling tunes

latimesblogs.latimes.com

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Re: Price war Amazon launches 69-cent MP3 store for top-selling tunes

#21

Post by atacrawl »

wccrawford wrote: post #4

Seems to me that iTunes captured the market because of the amazing integration with music devices and not the price point. Until someone beats them at that, I think things will continue as they are. I'm not an Apple fanboy by any means, but nobody else has produced a device that makes it so easy to find, buy, and listen to music on the go. Amazon's Cloud Player is a good start, since it eliminates having to load the…

Seems to me that iTunes captured the market because of the amazing integration with music devices and not the price point.

Completely agree with this, but I would two more factors -- a relevant selection from the outset, and the reliability and legitimacy of iTMS.

Re: Price war Amazon launches 69-cent MP3 store for top-selling tunes

#22

Post by tseabrooks »

wccrawford wrote: post #4

Seems to me that iTunes captured the market because of the amazing integration with music devices and not the price point. Until someone beats them at that, I think things will continue as they are. I'm not an Apple fanboy by any means, but nobody else has produced a device that makes it so easy to find, buy, and listen to music on the go. Amazon's Cloud Player is a good start, since it eliminates having to load the…

Am I the only one that hates the way iTunes interfaces with my iPhone? iTunes is probably the single most unpleasant thing about owning an iPhone. The iPhone works like a dream as long as I NEVER need to connect it to my PC. Every time I need to connect it for updating, backup, restore, add new music (Usually that I've bought from another service[Amazon]) it's a miserable experience.

If there was a way to use my iPad and iPhone without ever needed to connect to a desktop computer I'd feel like I won a million bucks.

Re: Price war Amazon launches 69-cent MP3 store for top-selling tunes

#23

Post by orijing »

danilocampos wrote: post #2

It's about time. Now let's see the same trend in eBook pricing. Completely inflated for the moment.

Maybe Amazon can have a publishing label that hires freelance editors. Amazon already handles a large portion of the publishing role, which is marketing.

Re: Price war Amazon launches 69-cent MP3 store for top-selling tunes

#24

Post by orijing »

wccrawford wrote: post #4

Seems to me that iTunes captured the market because of the amazing integration with music devices and not the price point. Until someone beats them at that, I think things will continue as they are. I'm not an Apple fanboy by any means, but nobody else has produced a device that makes it so easy to find, buy, and listen to music on the go. Amazon's Cloud Player is a good start, since it eliminates having to load the…

Do you think Antitrust pressures will force Apple to accept competing services for the iOS? (Amazon Cloud Player on the iPhone/iPod/iPad)

Re: Price war Amazon launches 69-cent MP3 store for top-selling tunes

#25

Post by gigawatt »

duskwuff wrote: post #16
gigawatt wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sure there's a quick fix for the iTunes purchased albums I still have, but the long-term solution is definitely to avoid purchasing from iTunes. For me, at least.

As the iTunes Music Store hasn't used DRM since January 2009, no long-term solution is necessary. Just don't travel back in time and you'll be fine. :)

I'm writing this from 2007!

Anyway, thanks for the responses. I was embarrassingly unaware of the changes. Though maybe the moral of the story is that DRM is a good way to lose a customer who won't come back under any circumstances if there's an equal service available without it.

Re: Price war Amazon launches 69-cent MP3 store for top-selling tunes

#26

Post by danilocampos »

rubergly wrote: post #19
danilocampos wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, let the authors sidestep the publishers as time goes on. They'll incur less overhead (dozens of unnecessary salaries that don't exist), keep more money and sell their product cheaper. The publishers will have to fall into line and sell the product at a price more in line with its value.

I think you're ignoring the fact that there's much more to publishers than just printing a physical copy of a book and shipping it to shelves. There's marketing, editing, screening, etc. Think what looking for books would be like if there was no quality screening or editing and you had to wade through an online catalog of thousands of books of crap just to have the off chance of happening to see a quality book.

Oh, sure, that's a valuable service. But it's definitely one that's bloated by way more salaries in the current model than are really needed.

Moreover, this is the internet age. People develop direct relationships with people who write things they like. You don't need a publisher to tell you that you'll want to read, say, Paul Graham's book.

Re: Price war Amazon launches 69-cent MP3 store for top-selling tunes

#27

Post by 2muchcoffeeman »

tseabrooks wrote: post #22
wccrawford wrote: post #4

Seems to me that iTunes captured the market because of the amazing integration with music devices and not the price point. Until someone beats them at that, I think things will continue as they are. I'm not an Apple fanboy by any means, but nobody else has produced a device that makes it so easy to find, buy, and listen to music on the go. Amazon's Cloud Player is a good start, since it eliminates having to load the…

Am I the only one that hates the way iTunes interfaces with my iPhone? iTunes is probably the single most unpleasant thing about owning an iPhone. The iPhone works like a dream as long as I NEVER need to connect it to my PC. Every time I need to connect it for updating, backup, restore, add new music (Usually that I've bought from another service[Amazon]) it's a miserable experience. If there was a way to use my iPad…

iTunes is not a great piece of software, but it does some pretty nice things for you. Backups of your phone, store integration, fairly powerful play list manager, syncing. All in one place.

Over the air updates are nice I guess, but how would I backup and restore 30Gb of data to my phone over the air?

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