« Carabiner Calculator | Home | SENZ — World's first aerodynamic umbrella »
January 19, 2008
Memo to Steve Jobs — Amazon Music Rocks
I happened to notice something new the other day when I went to Amazon to buy a CD (above, what I saw).
What's this? I thought.
So I tried to buy an MP3 song with 1-Click, just like the man said.
Alas, it wasn't that simple.
But it wasn't that hard, either.
Because I couldn't download Amazon's MP3 player because I don't have "OS X 10.4 or higher" (I'm still running 10.3.9/Panther, with a planned upgrade to 10.6 real soon now... wonder what they'll call that one — Ocelot? But I digress), I had to download it the old-fashioned way, directly to my browser, whatever that means.
All I know is that when I clicked on "Download directly," the Download Manager appeared from wherever it hangs out between downloads and in less than 10 seconds there was the song in MP3 format right smack on my desktop.
Sounded pretty darn good, too.
w00t!
January 19, 2008 at 12:01 PM | Permalink
TrackBack
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d8341c5dea53ef00e54fdf10368833
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Memo to Steve Jobs — Amazon Music Rocks:
Comments
The ones I've bought were SLIGHTLY lower effective bit rate than Apple's...AAC is a much newer codec and requires a LITTLE more horsepower, but in the end, a lower bitrate can give far better results as the psychoacoustic model has been tweaked entirely.
Secondly, album art isn't always there...the ones I've found are smaller quality...I've had to search the stuff out so that it looks clean and crisp on my iPhone.
Third...complete lack of liner notes on full albums. None what so ever. The extra dollar I pay at Apple is worth it so that I can read through this crap (though I gotta say, its getting rarer and rarer that I care...sometimes I'm just checking to see if my friends spelled my name correctly!) This also includes the videos Apple packs into a lot of the newer full albums. None of the extras.
The Amazon Downloader is pretty nice...it drops things into your iTunes folder for you. Emusic does the same thing (I would choose Amazon over Emusic any day of the week though).
As an aside to Al -- Limewire -- you do realize that folks like me don't get paid if you do this? It isn't a problem for bands because they pretty much get the bulk of their money from touring. Me? I'm stuck in a research lab trying to get my degree 11 months out of the year and do my writing when a label begs me. The people that get screwed by limewire are the writers, producers, the guys that donated their time in return for points because they know the artist doesn't have a lot of cash to pay upfront but we all believe in the work we are doing. 90% of the work I do anymore is the latter category. Labels? Hell...I don't even care any more about getting royalties on that stuff because my contract pretty much states I get a set amount up front...they don't like doing this, but I really don't want to deal with those people anyways. Work not contracted out by the label? Most likely I spent tons of my time for free (including equipment, and transportation...I live a few hour flight from any recording center)...all for a percentage of the album I believe will make a difference.
I don't know why people see Limewire as anything but stealing...and from folks you seem to enjoy creative works from. I don't go into a tax place and snag a stack of forms someone has just filled out for me after spending an hour going over them...or go into the McDonalds and walk behind the counter and help myself to a couple of Big Macs. Limewire is no different to folks that live by their creations and the fact that it is all ethereal and completely nontangible doesn't make it any different. Besides, this work allows me to remain a researcher and educator...it ain't like teaching yer kids is going to keep me out of debtor's prison :-)
Posted by: clifyt | Jan 19, 2008 4:39:38 PM
Ah, but they don't have The Beatles either. Oh well. I guess it's a good second stop for most music before resorting to Limewire.
Posted by: Al Christensen | Jan 19, 2008 1:03:55 PM
