![]() Price: Most tracks on iTunes go for 99 cents, while full albums sell for $9.99.Audiophiles can argue forever on the merits of higher-bit MP3s versus lower-bit AACs, but in listening to the same song purchased from each store - Amy Winehouse's "Rehab" - I couldn't tell a difference. Song quality: Amazon's store sells MP3 tracks encoded at a 256 kbps variable bit rate, while most songs on iTunes are encoded as AAC files with a bit rate of 128 kbps.In fact, I think it kicks iTunes' buttons. The store marks iTunes' first real competition. All of Amazon's tracks are sold as unrestricted MP3s, free of Digital Rights Management, or DRM - they will work on just about any music player in the world, including an iPod. This week, Amazon launched a beta version of a music store that breaks this lock-in. If you love something you want a permanent copy, and music from iTunes is fundamentally ephemeral: Nearly everything you purchase from the store will never work on any device not made by Apple. I think of it, now, as a place to buy music that I like, but not a place to get music I love. Still, iTunes has always seemed like a stopgap measure, something to tolerate until the music industry got its act together. When Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled the shop in the spring of 2003, I called it revolutionary, and who can argue that it's been anything but?
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |