Review
by: Museekster
Amazon MP3
sells unprotected music at affordable prices in the one format that anyone
wants and works on any player: MP3.
If you use the Amazon MP3 Downloader (highly recommended!), all your downloaded tracks will be automatically added to your iTunes or Windows Media Player library. All completed downloads are ready for listening and/or syncing to a portable player, iPod included. Great!
Catalogue
All four major labels are represented with deep catalog. Currently over 6 million songs are in store.
Files are delivered as 256 kbps MP3. This produces excellent audio. You need bionic ears to tell the difference between these MP3s and the original CD.
It's also good to know that each MP3 comes with embedded album art.
Price
Tracks cost 79 or 89 cents a piece, and you buy entire albums from $1.99 to $9.99. This makes Amazon a strong competitor to the almighty iTunes Music Store. AmazonMP3 has regular special deals - one album per day is available from $1.99 to $3.99 and every Friday five albums are available for $ 5 each.Pros
- reasonable pricing;
- great audio quality;
- no DRM copy protections;
- great catalogue including major artists;
- compatible with all portable players;
- excellent download manager;
- files are properly named and tagged;
- embedded album art.
Cons
- MP3 only.
- Only available in the US and UK (see our UK-review)
Conclusion
Amazon MP3 has everything to become the top destination for digital music. Finally a service that offers music by major artists in MP3 format, that is sure to pay the artists. The features of the website are well-thought-of and the download manager is simple but very effective. The feature that automatically adds new downloads to your iTunes or Windows Media Player library is just cool.
Even the payment procedure is a smooth experience. Once your first payment is processed, costs for all further downloads are automatically deducted from your credit card. Pricing is still somewhat high compared to the rogue Russian competitors, but you know that at least some of the money reaches the artist.