Hands-on Review: Amazon's DRM-Free MP3 Store

Today Amazon finally announced and launched its own DRM-free MP3 store (which I reported on as a rumor way back in December 2006), something which Apple launched in iTunes in April on selected tracks. Well, as I did with Apple's offer, I put Amazon's new service to the test. Technically in "public beta," here's how it shakes down.

First, the price is right: 89 to 99 cents per DRM-free track (a reported 1 million tracks cost just 89 cents, including the top 100 songs), vs. Apple's $1.29 per DRM-free track. Full albums are also available, with the top 100 albums costing just $8.99. The quality is the same: 256kbps encoding, though Amazon tracks are in MP3 format instead of AAC (another plus in my book). Already Amazon is in a distant lead.

Now comes the downloading process: iTunes tracks are integrated into iTunes, of course, and Amazon MP3s are integrated into the regular Amazon website. When you browse albums, you'll immediately see when downloadable MP3s are available. (They're hard to miss, even though navigating Amazon search results remains a disastrous mess.) You click to buy them just like you buy anything on Amazon.

The only catch comes during "checkout." You have to install a piece of software called the Amazon MP3 Downloader. The downloader then takes the songs and automatically loads them as MP3s into Windows Media Player or iTunes. They arrive fully cataloged and organized in your My Music directory, just as they should be, with album art and everything. I certainly don't like having to install software to download mysterious ".amz" files which are then converted into MP3s, but it's a hassle I'm willing to accept in order to save up to 40 percent on the price of admission. iTunes, of course, comes with its own baggage as well.

Then came the big test: I copied the MP3s I downloaded from my laptop to my desktop (where all my music is) and loaded it into iTunes. No problems whatsoever. The tracks worked perfectly.

Now Apple came under fire for embedding user information in its so-called "DRM-free" tracks. During a cursory examination I found no such information embedded in the Amazon tracks, though that doesn't mean it isn't there in some encoded form. I'm sure over the next few weeks better binary hackers than I will take a gander at what Amazon may or may not be hiding inside its MP3s, but on the surface it's already better than what Apple has been doing. [UPDATE: Gizmodo has some coverage of the watermarking found in Amazon-purchased tracks, but deems they do not contain information about the purchaser, only the place the tracks were purchased.]

Bottom line. I will buy DRM-free music from Amazon for exactly the same reason I won't buy it from Apple: The price is fair. I won't buy DRM-encumbered music under any circumstance, and I won't pay Apple's pirate tax for it's kinda-sorta-DRM-free tracks. Amazon has my business for now.

The next step, of course, is getting the rest of the majors besides EMI and Universal (which even Apple doesn't have Universal offering DRM-free tracks) to play ball and offer tracks without DRM as well. Two million songs is a great start, but there's still plenty of music out there that isn't available in MP3 form.

But overall, I'm ready to call this an unqualified success. Amazon, you blew it with movie downloads, but you've got a hit on your hands with music. Good luck in the good fight.