AP image: The magic of Amazon

AmazonMP3, the best way to get DRM-free MP3s onto your iPod—iTunes sells AACs, some with DRM—,will be available in other, non-U.S. countries beginning this year… and that’s all the info we have. No specific dates, no pricing information, no region-specific peculiarities. Just the warm feeling that sometime this year, people from all over the world, maybe in your country, maybe not, will be able to download Amazon’s MP3s.

I know the record labels want AmazonMP3 to succeed so they’re not entirely dependent upon iTunes for their download revenue. That’s too much control for one company (that’s not one of them) to have. Apple, for its part, probably isn’t too concerned about this digital music competition seeing as though it’s rapidly diversifying its iTunes Store , what with rentable movies, high-def content, etc. Go ahead, Amazon, Apple thinks, sell all the MP3s in the world; people are playing them on our hardware anyway.

Then there’s that whole piracy thing. Must be fun being a music industry executive nowadays.

Amazon to Begin International Rollout of Amazon MP3 in 2008 [Amazon]

Sony BMG will sell its music DRM-free on the AmazonMP3 store by the end of the month. This is the second move for Sony BMG in the DRM-free MP3 business. Last week, it announced that it would be selling DRM-free MP3s at retail stores (for largely the same price as CDs). More validation for that rumor, then.

There’s two winners here. The first is Amazon, whose music store is only three months old but already has the support of every music label. Consumers also win, as they now have more of a choice from where to download their music; iTunes is no longer the automatic, go-to choice. Maybe that Fast Company article urging caution to Apple wasn’t too far off the mark.

The labels are also embracing Amazon not only because the store loosens Apple’s stranglehold on the music download business, but because Amazon gives the labels more leeway to set prices than Apple. Don’t be surprised if Amazon starts selling new releases at a premium. Good thing new releases from the major labels are terrible for the most part.

Sony Joins Other Labels on Amazon MP3 Store [New York Times]

How does Amazon respond to Apple’s increasing the size, and dropping the price of, its DRM-free music store? By promising you free money, of course.

Amazon was quick to point out yesterday that its affiliates can earn up to 20 percent, or up to $1.50, per album or song sold on its AmazonMP3 online music store. (Compare that to the 5 percent that affiliates can make from iTunes.)

All this talk of indie labels having jumped on board the DRM-free bandwagon… well, why isn’t Sleater-Kinney part of that deal? I’m thinking back to albums that I’ve actually bought over the past few years and The Woods is certainly one of the few.

Amazon rallies associates to battle Apple’s iTunes share [AppleInsider]

Look at that, 99 cents

Apple is dropping the price of iTunes Plus songs by thirty cents, from $1.29 to 99 cents. Not all of the songs have seen a price drop yet, including the only iTunes Plus songs I ever bought (The Knife’s “Like a Pen” set of remixes), but that seems to be just a function of time. All such songs will be 99 cents in anticipation of an expansion of its indie music catalog, expected to be completed by tomorrow.

And why, pray tell, is Apple dropping the price? It could be in response to AmazonMP3 or it could be that Jobs simply declared it so. Either way, we win, and I feel like a jerk for paying 30 cents more per track a few months ago than I would now. Wonderful.

iTunes Plus DRM-free tracks expanding, dropping to 99 cents [Ars Technica]

Holy smokes. I was gonna belittle this guy’s column on how users of AmazonMP3 should be wetting their pants. Then I reread it, realizing that I had completely missed the point. Reading the user agreement for AmazonMP3, you’ll notice the legalese is more harsh than, say, iTunes’, as it relates to copying the music and fair use. Amazon’s says, essentially, if we suspect you’re sharing our DRM-free tracks with anyone we’ll hunt you down and tickle your belly. It’s way serious.

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Let’s not jump to conclusions, privacy hawks. Word on the street is that the MP3s Amazon now sells contain watermarks. The thing is, the watermarks—so far—only have information where the file was purchased and downloaded from. The record labels apply the watermarks to the files and Amazon has little say over that. There’s nothing in the watermark that says, “Jim Norton bought this file. His address is yadayadayada and his credit card info is blahblah.”

So yeah, that applies *right now*, Wednesday, September 26, 2007, 3:00pm. Watch the labels start tracking us come next week.

Some Of Amazon’s MP3 Tracks Contain Watermarks [Wired Listening Post]

Would you rather see boring company logos, or literal nonsense?

AmazonMP3 has the potential to not suck, which, knowing all the non-iTunes pay-to-download services, could be a first. It works on any OS, all MP3s are DRM-free (and encoded at a decent 256kbps) and music is available from artists you’d actually hear on the radio—actually, that may be a negative. Support a few countries other than the U.S. and I’m sure Amazon will syphon off a few iTunes customers.

Speaking of iTunes, how do the two services compare, content-wise? Cult of Mac noticed a few things, like how Radiohead’s whole discography is available for $8.99 per album. (Remember, there’s no Radiohead on iTunes because the band is made up of a bunch of crybabies who only want to sell albums and not give you the chance to buy tracks separately.) Also, seven of the current top 10 songs on iTunes are available on AmazonMP3. The thing is, AmazonMP3’s songs are DRM-free, which can’t be said about any of iTunes’.

Little things, yes, but something to think about while you down your morning coffee (I’m about to head to my coffee joint in a minute) and cruise ESPN while the boss isn’t looking.

Interesting Comparisons between iTunes and Amazon [Cult of Mac]