Amazon dying thanks to us, all of us
- April 7th, 2008
- 5 Comments
Henry “The Animal” Blodget is positing that Amazon is losing traction to all of the other content providers out there including, but not limited to iTunes and piracy. The giant once made its money selling books, DVDs, and CDs but with the Internet, the Internet, and the Internet, all of those things are available electronically and Amazon didn’t quite make the cut. While I’ll cede that they rule the world of the book, especially with the Kindle, the MP3 and the movie stores are both sub-par and not extremely popular. Amazon, now is 3rd after iTunes and WalMart in music sales. Wasn’t Amazon supposed to trounce everybody?
I’m not counting Amazon out yet, however. They know content and they have a trusted brand so this can be corrected. As it stands, however, Apple is eating most of Amazon’s sweet, sweet pie, which is bad for Bezos.
thebonafortuna (Who am I?)
6 months ago
Not sure how Amazon’s “One Click” MP3 service is sub-par, its really incredibly easy to use. Anybody reading this who hasn’t tried it (and buys music online), I definitely recommend trying it. The software will download the song for you, and automatically integrate it into your iTunes collection (not sure about other software).
And the music is often cheaper, but never in my experience has it been more than $.99 per song. I have yet to find a song available on iTunes which isn’t available on Amazon.
If you’re willing to download the optional software which is pretty small, its a great program. Not sure how it works without the software. But that whole lack of a DRM thing and cheaper prices make it worthwhile to me.
John Biggs (Who am I?)
6 months ago
1 click is great, but the are bigger guys in the market for downloads, ie itunes and piracy. Sub par might have been the wrong word. Let’s say “losing ground”
weatherman (Who am I?)
6 months ago
Um. Granted, Amazon’s Unbox is still a bit under the radar for most, but Amazon only really started selling MP3s in January. They barely finished one quarter and they’re in third place. And you’re calling them dead? Have you even used Amazon MP3? Its about as simple as can be; integrates completely with iTunes so you just click on Amazon for the track or album that you want and it downloads to iTunes and syncs the next time you plug in your iPod. And it’s DRM free and cheaper than iTunes.
Really, I don’t know where this story is coming from but it seems like a pretty half-baked piece.
Travis (Who am I?)
6 months ago
As far as physical media goes Amazon used to be the best place - but they are pretty high anymore. There are thousands of sites to buy CD’s and DVD’s online and many of them have lower prices than Amazon does. In the early days Amazon was great to find obscure stuff that was not on the shelf in your local stores - but with e-tailing becoming so popular they need to have more competitive prices to survive.
Ze Popenator (Who am I?)
6 months ago
Ok, I am not a fan of Amazon un-boxed .. but the MP3 site is actually pretty good, and the site as a whole offers pretty much anything you desire, and include the Amazon Prime to lower any shipping costs.. It is pretty much the only place I will purchase items from now. Amazon is not perfect, but neither is Apple or any of the other vendors or services out there. You just tend to go with those you trust and who offer great service.. And Amazon does that for me.