Music

I was never a fan of buying music on Amazon. Forget about digital downloads, even shopping for CDs there wasn't much fun. Mainly because the previews were of poor quality, and listening to them required you to launch a player for single songs, or open a new tab in your browser to sample an entire album.

No more. The new MP3 store is great to use; easy to browse and find the music you are looking for, and previews play almost instantly within the window, without the need for a new one to be opened. And the coup d'etate: songs and albums cost less than on iTunes(typically $6.99 on Amazon to $9.99 on iTunes), and are sold with Digital Rights Management (DRM). That means that you can play them on any mp3 player, copy/burn them as often as you please, and send them to as many people as you want. I've bought extensively on iTunes. From now on I will check Amazon first when I'm looking for a music download.

This article provides a good explanation on all the features and differences between Amazon's new store and iTunes.


Amazon's MP3 store: Better than iTunes
http://www.salon.com/tech/machinist/blog/2007/09/26/amazon_store/print.html