Comments on: In just 30 days, Amazon MP3 may be the No. 3 online music store

By: mat

mat — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 14:37:44 +0000

@Hank:
The only way to have interoperability without paying lots of bucks is… mp3.
That’s not only because different brands purpose different DRM (aac and wma above all),
but also because some brands reject his own drm scheme to support newer ones
(check about Microsoft Zune and play4sure issue, for the happiness of all the customer
who PAID for such music, already becomed trash…)

By: Daniel Langendorf

Daniel Langendorf — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 15:41:49 +0000

@Mark, thanks for the clarification. You’re right. I should have caught that. At least you keep me honest.

By: Michael C

Michael C — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 14:44:37 +0000

Wish Amazon success, if only to stop Apple becoming the Microsoft of music.

By: Hank Williams

Hank Williams — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 12:16:39 +0000

Actually amazon’s success does not prove the significance of DRM free music. The truth about DRM free music has been demonstrated with apple’s DRM free stuff with EMI. As should be obvious, but isnt to tech insiders, civilians don’t care about DRM. They will not pay more for it and they will not change their habits for it. Most people don’t even understand it.

What this proves is that interoperability is key. MP3 has the benefit of playing on IPods. Its not DRM free that people care about. What they want is to be able to buy music for the device they have… duh! If people cared about DRM, iTunes would not be a success. Why dont the people that think that the world revolves around DRM explain that!

Oh and by the way I dont work in the record business, but I have worked in internet music. It just galls me that the tech “thought leaders” are generally so ignorant about the real behavioral dynamics of so many things relating to entertainment, and opine on it based entirely on the wisdom of the tech crowd and not real data.

By: Hank Williams

Hank Williams — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 12:12:22 +0000

Actually amazon’s succes does not prove the significance of DRM free music. The truth about DRM free music has been demonstrated with apple’s DRM free stuff with EMI. As should be obvious, but isnt to DRM tech insiders, civilians dont care about DRM. They will not pay more for it they will not change their habits for it, and most dont even understand it.

By: Steve O'Hear (editor)

Steve O'Hear (editor) — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 02:16:25 +0000

@mark

the post has been updated for clarity. Thanks.

By: tom

tom — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 01:32:35 +0000

I just wish they’d open up a similar store for Canada…a day after it opened I was able to get one track, but a few days later it said they couldn’t sell to me (IP based I presume) based on my geographic location. Bummer.

By: mark

mark — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 01:11:28 +0000

“Likewise, songs purchased on iTunes cannot be played on a Zune or iRiver MP3 player.”

Not true. Only “songs with DRM purchased on iTunes” have that condition. There are more DRM-free songs at the iTunes Store than at AmazonMP3.