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Our Blogs The BeerFiles DRM-free Amazon MP3 to take on iTunes globally in 2008
Our Blogs The BeerFiles DRM-free Amazon MP3 to take on iTunes globally in 2008 | DRM-free Amazon MP3 to take on iTunes globally in 2008 |
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| by Stan Beer | |
| Monday, 28 January 2008 | |
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The EMI arrangement saw higher quality DRM-free 256Kbps AAC tracks offered for sale on iTunes for US$1.29 compared to the lower quality 128Kbps AAC tracks restricted by Apple's Fairplay DRM for US$0.99. The DRM-free tracks can be copied to and played on any device capable of playing AAC without restriction while the Fairplay tracks can only be played on Apple's iPod, a Macintosh or PC computer, or burned to a CD up to five times. After Amazon launched Amazon MP3, it became obvious that the major music labels were making a concerted effort to break the dominance of iTunes, which commands an estimated 80% market share of legal music downloads. While Apple's insistence on maintaining the 99c price tag on all its tracks had been reported to be a sticking point with the record companies, Amazon MP3 offers 256Kbps DRM-free MP3 tracks for US$0.89 to US$0.99 from all four labels. A clear differentiator between the Amazon music store and iTunes is its use of the MP3 format as opposed to Apple's AAC. While AAC is generally considered to produce better sound quality playback than MP3 at the same bit rate, MP3 is widely regarded as a universal standard and, unlike AAC, MP3 tracks are playable on virtually all devices that can play digital recordings, including mobile phones. |
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