Man, I just don't care that Amazon is selling DRM free MP3's. Honest to God, I don't.
I fall in the camp of iPod owners that just won't own anything else. Yes, I know that there are players that offer other features or more features but I am happy with what the iPod offers me. It does what it does simply and easily and doesn't pile on a bunch of stuff that I just don't care to have like AM/FM tuners or (I don't have a Touch or an iPhone) streaming radio stations. I am one that likes the iTunes integration and how easy it is to select some music or podcasts and have the thing synced up for me. No worries, no hassles.
Amazon MP3's work on the iPod and with iTunes. Great. Some Amazon songs are less than .99. Great. I just don't care.
Last year (2007) I bought 189 songs from iTunes Music Store. It was quick, painless and just flat worked. I wanted to try the Amazon store but one of the things that I was after was album only on Amazon and iTMS had individual tracks for sale. Strike one against Amazon. When I went to check out I then found out that I would have to install another application to do the downloads. That was it. I don't need an auto start application to get my music. iTunes handles the entire deal for me and if I cared about the cheaper price I likely wouldn't have been buying music online in the first place.
The iPod and iTunes are an entire economy, a way of musical life if you will. You are either in or you are out. The bad news for Amazon, Wal-Mart and anyone else in the MP3 business is the sheer volume of iPods that have been sold. When Apple does it so well, so easily the fight is up hill in the mud. Some people like me even resent the fact that the record labels will provide DRM free tracks to the likes of Amazon or Wal-Mart but not Apple. It is another topic entirely but the whole pissing match makes me want to only buy indie music from eMusic.com just to cram it in the ass of the labels.
Good on you Amazon! You sell those DRM free tracks to anyone that will buy them. Me? No thanks. I am happy doing it the way that works best for me and that is through iTunes. IMHO, the iTunes Music Store is only a value added service for the iPod. Apple makes some money from music sales, but it wouldn't be a business at all without the iPod while I think that the iPod would survive without the iTMS.
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