Thursday, January 24, 2008

The online music business is getting more competitive - good for us!

I just noticed I have more than 9,100 tunes in my iTunes folder and, consequently, that many in my iPod.

My online music-buying habits have shifted recently. Apple no longer has a monopoly on my music shopping now that Amazon.com is in the MP3 business. Amazon.com's offerings are free of copy protection, encoded at a higher bitrate and often 89 cents/song. And their inventory is growing like crazy. Sony announced earlier this month that its entire catalog will be available at Amazon.com. Sony is the fourth major record label to cut a deal with Amazon.com, joining EMI, Universal and Warner.

Music that costs less, is readily reproducible and sounds better. And the competition is making Apple push its partners to get rid of Digital Rights Management (DRM). What's not to like?

1 comment:

EL OTRO said...

Do you miss the vinyl we donated to the Monon right of way?