AmazonMP3 - The MP3, DRM-Free Music Download Service - Review

Amazon launches their mp3, drm-free iTunes killer! Does it live it to the hype?

At first glance AmazonMP3 doesn't look as slick as iTunes, but it does boast some huge features.

More after the break

MP3 and DRM-Free

This is huge people! This is the key feature that has held back other music services such as Napster, Yahoo Music and iTunes.

With AmazonMP3 you get good old MP3 files, DRM-Free. This means that the music files will play in any player. I love image (see above) on AmazonMP3's site. You can see the iPod, Zune and all the other crappy MP3 players. The point is that the songs from AmazonMP3 will play on all of them!

Price

I'm not sure how Amazon pulled this off, especially since the big record labels have been arguing with Apple over the $.99 price model, but AmazonMP3 has great deals!

Check out these monster deals. Get Rich or Die Tryin' for $5.99? I'm not even a big 50 Cent fan, but that's a great price! Radiohead albums for $8.99?!? Amazon must have had one persuasive legal team to pull this off!

Sublime 40 oz. to Freedom, 22 songs total for $7.97! Wow.

The Business
via AlleyInsider.com
"Amazon has only landed cooperation from two of the four major music labels: EMI Group and Vivendi's Universal Music Group will sell much of their music via the service, while Sony-BMG and Warner Music Group (WMG) are sitting this one out for now. That gives the store an initial catalog of 2 million songs, compared to Apple's 5 million. But the labels have been begging for a real competitor to break Apple's iTunes stranglehold on the digital music business, so if Amazon can make headway it will be hard for Sony and WMG to stay away."

The D/L
I'm excited. I'm going to try it out now!

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