It's a new game now. I have 
always thought that Jeff Bezos is one of the smartest guys around, but this latest development will probably send their stock through the roof. Amazon has huge trust and loyalty on the Net, tens of millions of faithful users, and over 1 Million online affiliates - once they go out with an MP3-based digital music offering everyone else will have to run for cover (but hey, Apple still won't care - they make the coolest devices!). I predict that Amazon will become the biggest seller of digital music within 12-18 months IF all the labels go with this new tidal shift (away from DRM) - well, of course, they really don't have a choice do they. I also predict that within 3 months of launching MP3 based services, all retailers will start bundling digital music with other products, therefore drastically reducing the effective, user-paid price for music, and leading to explosive purchase behavior that will ring in a whole new era for the music industry. As I have always said: stop chasing Total Control, and start receiving more $$ instead. Watch my 2007 predictions and other videos here. Sign up for my newsletter here.
Report: Amazon to Launch MP3 Download Store in May; Universal on Board | Digital Media Wire.
"Report: Amazon to Launch MP3 Download Store in May; Universal on Board Submitted by Mark Hefflinger on April 16, 2007 - 11:03am. New York - Online retail giant Amazon.com is poised to launch its own digital music download store in May that will sell songs in the unprotected MP3 format, Billboard reported. Amazon declined to comment for the story on its entry into a market currently dominated by Apple's iTunes Store. Label sources told Billboard that some are waiting until after it launches, or until a major label signs on before they decide whether to support the service; others are negotiating with Amazon over a premium price to be charged for higher-fidelity 256K MP3 downloads. Billboard also reports that major label Universal Music Group plans to test the sale of unprotected songs at the Amazon store and other retailers, including some of its classical catalog and music from other genres. The news follows fellow major label EMI's recent announcement that it would sell songs as unprotected MP3s on iTunes and other services. Amazon ditched plans last year to launch a subscription-based service utilizing Microsoft's Windows Media Audio format, after Microsoft closed off its Zune player to competing services..."
Well just because you can sell DRM music doesn't necessarily translate into success for Amazon and other retailers. The reason is that although you can get DRM free music from Amazon, you won't be able to use iTunes to get it. iTunes will only work seamlessly with the iTunes store.
So consumers will have to buy from Amazon, then import into iTunes and then sync with the iPod. But if you have iTunes you can skip that additional step.
Posted by: Paul | April 18, 2007 at 04:48 AM
Or, if you use another kind of mp3 player than Ipod, (for instance, there are about 100 million mobile phones out there with mp3 players in them, not to mention Creative and so on), You can just copy the mp3 files into your device, without having to hassle with itunes at all. But I think that we all agree that switching to DRM free files is going to change the market for digital downloads.. a lot
Posted by: Kimmo | April 18, 2007 at 01:21 PM