Macworld just published an article .
I can vouch for this myself.
I’m getting ready to send a friend my 1G iPod Nano and thought about including an iTunes Gift Certificate as well, but then I thought “Hrm, maybe I ought to give her an Amazon Gift Certificate instead?”
Also, someone on a mailing list asked about a legal place to download music. Someone immediately suggested iTunes, but when the original poster indicated that she wanted to put together a slideshow or DVD of pictures, the conversation immediately moved to Amazon due to iTunes use of DRM for most of its tracks.
Personally I wish that Universal would get over itself and offer the same DRM-free tracks that Amazon has, but then again I’m still waiting for Amazon to start edging up the prices for what the Music Business deems to be “better” songs.
One strength that Amazon does have is a business built around similar commodities (books, CDs, DVDs, etc) which sell at different prices. No one is confused by the fact that one DVD costs $14 and another costs $20, nor that one book sells for $8 and another for $15, etc.
That said, I hope that we never see a day when individual songs break the $1 mark. Conversely, the Music Business would prefer $3-$5 for “hits” and might, just might, sell you crappy music for less.
If you haven’t read by JoelOnSoftware, you should do so right now. Here’s a teaser quote for you:
Here’s the dream world for the EMI Group, Sony/BMG, etc.: there are two prices for songs on iTunes, say, $2.49 and $0.99. All the new releases come out at $2.49. Some classic rock (Sweet Home Alabama) is at $2.49. Unwanted, old, crap, like, say, Brandy (You’re A Fine Girl) — the crap we only know because it was pushed on us in the 70s by paid-off disk jockeys — would be deliberately priced at $0.99 to send a clear message that $0.99 = crap. And now when a musician gets uppity, all the recording industry has to do is threaten to release their next single straight into the $0.99 category, which will kill it dead no matter how good it is. And suddenly the music industry has a lot more leverage over their artists in negotiations: the kind of leverage they are used to having. Their favorite kind of leverage. The “we won’t promote your music if you don’t let us put rootkits on your CDs” kind of leverage.