So the big news yesterday — aside from all the happenings at the United Nations — was the Amazon’s release of a digital download section of their store. The big difference between their not-iTunes music store and every other not-iTunes music store is that Amazon is offering all their songs in DRM¹-free MP3 format². Also, it’s freakin’ Amazon.com!

John Gruber says, “I predict a year from now, Amazon’s store will be a solid #2 to iTunes…” I agree completely — provided he means “solid #2″ in the same way Microsoft’s Zune is a solid #2 amongst digital music players. That is to say, I think in a year Amazon MP3 is going to be a “Huh?” and a “Why?” and nothing anyone who’s not insane cares about.

Or to put it in Gruberic terms: I’m an Amazon MP3 doubter.

Loyal Equinox of Insanity readers know that I’m not prone to outlandish pronouncements with little to no basis in reality, so clearly I have logical, sensible reasons for hatin’ on Amazon MP3. Well, it just so happens I do…

Point #1. Real people don’t actually worry about DRM

I’m sorry Slashdot.com, but iTunes FairPlay DRM scheme hasn’t eaten any babies, pillaged any villages, or given me any STD I didn’t already have. Most importantly, it hasn’t actually gotten in the way of me enjoying my music, or sharing it with my friends. In technical terms, I would say the license you get with each song is quite fair, indeed.

And I’m not alone. Most regular folks I know don’t even know what DRM is, and they most certainly aren’t lamenting it’s restrictions.³

Point #2. People who do worry about DRM probably aren’t buying digital music anyway

Let us, for the moment, pretend like DRM doesn’t exist. We’re still left with music that’s being produced by money-grubbing corporations with little regard for artistic integrity who are grossly overpricing their wares and all they do is put out garbage anyway. The people who are philosophically hatin’ on DRM are also going to philosophically hate on the RIAA anyway. Which means they’re probably just going to go to BitTorrent and get their music for free, like they’ve been doing all along. The justification might change, but the piracy will remain unchanged.

Point #3. Integration is highly potent. Also, people are hella lazy

The genius of what Apple has done is that they integrated the digital music device, the playback software, the syncing software, and the store software together seemlessly. It’s all done in iTunes. If you’re listening to your music and you decide you want to buy another awesome Gin Blossom’s track, all you have to do is click over to the music store and have at it.

“But,” I hear you saying, “you can save $0.10 per song (potentially) from Amazon MP3 and all you have to do is open up your web browser, go to Amazon.com, and then buy the song there.”

Yeah, and all you have to do to not use that piece of shit Internet Explorer is navigate to Mozilla.com in the browser you’re already in and download Firefox. Yet, IE’s market share is still 70-80%. People are lazy, and the less work they have to do the happier they are. I don’t think $0.10 is a big enough threshold to break the appeal of Apple’s tight product integration, and I certainly don’t think DRM-freeness will for Amazon in the long run.

Point #4. Honestly, Amazon MP3 is crap

I bought a song⁴ from Amazon MP3 just to try it out. Guess what? The experience sucked. The interface (i.e., Amazon’s web page) is a pain compared to iTunes, mostly because Amazon so desperately kept the design of the MP3 store section in line with the rest of the site, which doesn’t really make sense. For example, playback controls for the song previews are located in the window at the top of the list of songs, but if the list is long they will disappear off screen. The controls should be fixed somewhere (side, top, wherever) but that will clash with Amazon’s site design. Corporate synergy rocks, right?

As much as we web-heads would like to pretend that web apps can match the glory of desktop apps, they can’t. A well designed desktop app will always beat a well designed web app. There are limitations to UI in the browser that simply do not exist in desktop software, and as long as Amazon MP3 lives in the browser it’s going to be limited in terms of what it can do compared to iTunes. And let’s not forget, Apple pimps UI like nobody’s business.

But it’s Amazon

True, Amazon is a powerhouse when it comes to the sale and distribution of goods over the Internet, but what does that have to do with digital downloads? Nothing, actually. All that amazing infrastructure that Amazon has built over the last decade or so is useless here. The only real advantages they have are that they’re filthy rich (although, that didn’t help Yahoo!’s music store all that much) and practically everyone on Earth already has an Amazon account (which I don’t think is enough of an issue to matter).

So really, at the end of the day, what does it matter that his is Amazon? Would it make a difference if this was Buy.com? Oh, wait, they already tried getting into the music download business. How’d that turn out again?

Screw You Guys, I’m Going Home

Ever watch “South Park”? When Cartman realizes he’s not going to win an argument with Stan and Kyle he says “Screw you guys, I’m going home,” and then he leaves.

Everyone thinking they’re going to take on Apple needs to take a lesson from Cartman. It’s not going to happen. You aren’t going to win. Pack up your bags and go home. Then when you get home, start thinking about The Next Big Thing In Consumer Electronics™, because that’s what Apple did to get to where they are now. They saw a market that was struggling to get mainstream, and they released a revolutionary product — the iPod. The only way to beat Apple in the digital music arena is to beat the iPod, and quite frankly I don’t think another MP3 player is going to do that.

And let me add, you need to hurry, because Apple’s already started moving on to The Next Big Thing In Consumer Electronics™. I wrote about this in “iPod Redefined,” in which I assert that Apple is rebranding iPod to be a more than just a digital music player, and they’re going to take music downloads with them.

The only way for someone to beat Apple in the music download market is to look at the iPhone and imagine a device better than that. I’m sure Steve Jobs is busy doing that right now.

1. Digital Rights Management.↩
2. I realize their are other stores that offer DRM-free music, but they suck and are therefore irrelevant↩
3. That’s not to say they shouldn’t be. I think the case against DRM as a concept is valid, but the case against Apple’s use of DRM is weak, at best.↩
4. “The Dophin’s Cry” by Live. It’s very gym-appropriate, me thinks.↩

Tags: iTunes

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 26th, 2007 at 1:56 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.