Amazon MP3 Store Review

I must admit I was rather non-pulsed when I read about the new Amazon MP3 store. While I am not a big DRM fan, having DRM laden tracks really doesn't cause me much pain. I am not a "No DRM" freak by any stretch. Also the iTunes Store experience is pretty great, click, download done!

I decided to give the Amazon MP3 store a try anyways. Slightly cheaper tracks + RadioHead was enough to get me to give it a try. Not that I need any RadioHead, I have it all on CD/MP3 already but mention RadioHead and I am there.

These steps where observed/performed on my Mac using FireFox, other OS/browsers will be different (and suck more).

First I downloaded and installed the Amazon MP3 Downloader. This app runs separately to handle downloading and in theory (see below) importing the MP3s into iTunes. After installing the downloader it takes you to a web page (via your default browser) where you can download the free track—“Energy” by The Apples In Stereo. Funny, very funny and the song sucks to boot. What this does is pop-up (in Firefox anyways) a box to associate the file to an application, you want to choose the MP3 downloader that is installed in your applications folder.

The downloader app fires up and starts downloading. Download speeds seem pretty fast on the T-1 I was on at the time. Then off to find something new and I found this

The String Quartet Tribute to Radiohead:Enigmatic

Looks interesting so I download a track. The track sounds cool enough to get the entire album so I go to download the whole enchilada and I notice I don't get a credit for having just bought the one track. That is pretty lame. It also appeared to downlod the file twice although I have not confirmed that, it shows up in the download window twice however.

Then I went to look at iTunes and could not find any of my songs there. Hmm that is pretty lame. It is supposed to work but for some reason it does not for me. I have to choose "Import into Library" to suck the songs in. Pretty damn lame if you ask me.

Conclusion

I will buy songs from there again but only if they are not available on the iTunes store already. I am spoiled with the seamless way iTunes and the iTunes store work together. For me that is worth an extra 10 cents a song. Yes I am that lame.