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Amazon.com is prepping an MP3 music download store, offering DRM-free songs from EMI and 12,000 other labels. The e-tailer will open shop "later this year". In the meantime it is not commenting on pricing. But according to WebProNews, Amazon is said to be offering "full album downloads retailing at $4.99 to $8.99 and …

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  1. Alex Wood

    Pricing

    What are the odds that single tracks are about £1 here?

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  2. Nexox Enigma

    Pricing

    Well you know, they've got to translate all the tracks to UK English, then ship them thousands of miles across water. Thats got to cost something.

    So long as it costs less, is DRM free, and is higher quality than what iTunes provides, I don't see how it could go wrong. Oh yeah, these are Apple/iTunes users we're talking about here...

    I wonder if it'll be vanilla MP3 or AAC or something. Too bad I'm on of the 6 people that actually enjoys OGG on this planet...

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  3. Rob

    Listening to the wind of change....

    Be happy!

    Of the DRM-free sources I already purchase tracks from (Beatport and DanceTracksDigital) the choices are:

    AAC @ 192k,

    MP3 @ 320k and

    WAV @ 1.4M (CD rate).

    Since this seems to be a trend of sorts, I would expect that Amazon would follow suit with at least the first two options here.

    The only matter for concern will be the cost per track, as apart from the obvious notion that the exchange rate is nearly 2-to-1, amazon.co.uk would have to pay a different fee to MCPS than amazon.com would to RIAA. When I last checked, MCPS charge 12% on the "download" mechanical, where as RIAA charge 8%.

    It does mean more money for the artists though. Remember them?

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  4. Colin Jackson

    Buying from the US

    Amazon.com seems quite happy to sell me books in the UK, which I quite often do if I can't source them from amazon.co.uk (amazingly, it's often cheaper even with the extra postage). I wonder how they would justify NOT doing so with a product that doesn't even have to be shipped?

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