The Amazon MP3 Store

Hooray for Amazon!  My family owns nothing but Creative Labs MP3 players so iTunes has never been a viable option.  Plus, with DRM being a major hassle, I'll always opt for buying and ripping a CD over paying for a limited-use download.  Always.

The few songs I have bought over the years (for my daughter) came from walmart.com, which has always proven to be a reliable service, btw.  When Walmart recently announced they were breaking free from the DRM chains I figured life couldn't get any better.  And then Amazon announced their MP3 store. Totally DRM free.  Works on any MP3 player.  Most songs are 89-99 cents.  Outstanding.

Sure, a couple of the major labels are still missing from this deal; as long as they choose to remain wrapped up in DRM I won't be buying their music online anyway.  Let's see if Amazon can help me make a dent in the  10 gig of free space I currently have on my trusty Creative Labs player...

Comments

[Anthony S. Policastro]

Hurray for Amazon! The first time I purchased a down loadable song for my daughter's Nano I was appalled that it would only play on my PC. I had to pay another 99 cents so it would download to her Nano. I felt totally ripped off. It would be like buying a CD and only being allowed to play it on one player. I paid for the song and I should have a right to play it on any device I choose.

Thanks for the update.

[Jason Marcuson]

I have a few thoughts on the Amazon MP3 Store, Joe. I bought 4 songs on Tuesday. Then I downloaded the Downloader.

And it doesn't work. Runtime errors galore. Thankfully I got a response to my issue within 24 hours from Amazon. They had a good idea: Try storing my MP3's locally and not on a network. So I changed the default storage location. Still doesn't work.

So I have no access to the 4 songs I bought 2 days ago. I haven't given up hope though. I'm tired of the iTunes DRM issues. I've had some home PC and iPod issues, and each time I need to have one repaired I seem to lose access to the songs I bought on iTunes. I was planning to go back actually buying physical CDs, believe it or not, until I read about the Amazon MP3 Beta launch.

Well, it's a beta, so I'll wait. A little while. But I really hope this works. I'm fed up with iTunes.

Oh, one more thing. Amazon needs to land waaaaaaay more artists and labels than they have now. They have a tiny fraction of what I'm looking for.

[Susan Helene Gottfried]

I've got a Creative MP3 player, too, Joe.

Please be sure to post updates on how this works! Sometimes, I feel like me and Rob Zombie are the only two people left on the planet buying albums...