AmazonMP3

Beach Boys twofers $9
Ummagumma $9
Eno remasters $9
etc.

This may be a dream come true. Thanks for the heads up. Maybe a better question would be which major labels haven't signed on yet?

Larry Young's "Lawrence of Newark" for only $4.95 is a nice place to start. Especially since I was just looking for an mp3 of Khalid of Space just last week.

Wow, this really does feel like a pretty huge thing (maybe I'm alone in this). I knew it was coming for a while, but not being a fan of Itunes and DRM at all (daring stances I know), being able to buy most/many artists in a non-DRM format immediately, anywhere, and do WeverTF I want with the file is nice. And if you're listening labels, yes I would much rather buy an mp3 that I can play/burn/alter as I choose than use soulseek or blogs to seek it out. Apparently Sony BMG, WMG, the Beatles, and Bob Seger are still holding out, but oh well. The time will come. Hypebot has two interesting articles on this here:

http://hypebot.typepad.com/hypebot/2007/09/amazons-mp3-dow.html

http://hypebot.typepad.com/hypebot/2007/09/what-the-amazon.html

No Bob Seger?!?!

DEAL-KILLER.

No doubt. Although Seger and the Beatles are prolly individually worth as much as any major label right now.

And no Jomanda??? My excitement takes a hit.

Pretty awesome. I sort-of work for them, so feel free to discount my opinion, but it feels like eMusic without the subscription, and it has more labels. No subpop, though (I think?), which is annoying.

Wait is it as cheap track by track as emusic?

No.

Do they have a better approach than iTunes to the pricing of long tracks? It would be great if a 15 minute track cost 2.00 instead of just being unavailable w/out buying the whole album.

depends on the album (possibly the label?). Pink Floyd's 23-minute "Echoes" is $4, VU's "Sister Ray" is album only.

and all Fela songs are $1 or less, get them while they're hot

Well, for instance the Larry Young track that I mentioned above is a 12+ minute monster of a track and it's selling for only 99 cents individually. So tracks are priced higher but I'm also noticing loads of tracks for only 89 cents.

Hmm... that's pretty promising (I'm a classical freak).

"only" xp

Just tried this out. It's fantastic. Doesn't seem like there's anything sneaky about it either. I'm really happy :D

This is a really strong competitor to the iTunes juggernaut and it'll be interesting to see how this plays out.

not mp3s, but 170 cds of Mozart for £49.99 - thats roughly 30p a cd.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Complete-Works-Wolfgang-Amadeus-Mozart/dp/B000A0HFZS/ref=br_lf_m_350613011_1_2_ttl/026-1475304-1318049?%5Fencoding=UTF8&s=music&pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=0P75VJA23NW52VHQ30FC&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=155556791&pf_rd_i=350613011
how long would it take to listen from start to finish?

I recently bought the corresponding Bach one (155 cds) actually.

this thread and a similar one on slashdot leaves me (a britisher) a bit confused. is there currently nowhere in the States that does mp3 downloads?

(here i've used bleep, boomkat, tunetribe, juno, chemical... none of which are drmed)

a corollary to the long track problem is the short track problem - lots of, say, melt-banana tracks that come in at under a minute still cost the same as normal length tracks.

also thought it funny that topping the chart at the moment is the track being used to advertise ipods

1. 1234 by Feist
2. Rehab by Amy Winehouse
3. Stronger (Explicit) by Kanye West
4. Big Girls Don't Cry (… by Fergie
5. The Way I Are by Timbaland
6. Bubbly by Colbie Caillat
7. 1234 by Feist
8. Makes Me Wonder by Maroon 5
9. Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol
10. Comfortably Numb (199… by Pink Floyd
11. Bitter Sweet Symphony by The Verve
12. Stronger (Explicit) by Kanye West
13. Thnks fr th Mmrs by Fall Out Boy
14. Suddenly I See by KT Tunstall
15. Under Pressure by Queen & David Bowie
16. Imagine (2000 Digital… by John Lennon And The P…
17. Clocks by Coldplay
18. Smile (Explicit Version) by Lily Allen
19. The Sweet Escape by Gwen Stefani
20. Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana
21. Read My Mind by The Killers
22. Heart Of Glass by Blondie
23. Song 2 by Blur
24. The Underdog by Spoon
25. The Sweet Escape by Gwen Stefani

also, three of the above are repeated - same track from different sources.

Short track problem is eMusic's Achilles Heel. I'll never buy a Melt Banana album from them nor a recording of the Goldberg Variations.

But this is made up for by the fact that they have no long track problem. (Hello Mahler's 9th for less than a dollar).

What is the bitrate on these?

256

RE: koogs question above.

I think the excitement (at least for me) is the number of newly DRM-free major label releases. Universal or whoever had started releasing a few things DRM free on other services, but this is (to my knowledge) the first place for across-the-board, non-subscription based, major and indie, DRM-free mp3 store. The fact that I can go buy single X from a major label artist completely DRM-free without having to search for it on a blog or using soulseek, etc is the real appeal.

xpost OK, this is awesome then.

I mean, my problem with the iTunes store was less DRM issues (which are admittedly annoying) and more the fact that everything was 128kbps.

Ha, I thought that was Lilly Allen in the ipod commercial. I'm an old man.

Yeah my problems with iTunes was that my mp3 player isn't an iPod, the bitrates weren't good even if I just bought something to burn, and that I sometimes want to mess with my mp3s using Audacity, etc. All three problems taken care of now.

Yeah, as of last week Feist was actually 61 on the Hot 100 and that must be almost exclusively from digital sales.

Ok i just did about 30 min. of browsing the classical stuff.

Re: long tracks, the pricing schemes are all over the map depending on label.

Some have a scheme of <7:00=$.89, <14:00= $1.90, longer than that = $2.90.

Others have the familiar "tracks more than 7:00 only available w/whole album" scheme. And others just have every track at $.89 no matter the length.

Whole album prices are as low as $4.99 for some labels, mostly $9.99. Most of the double albums I saw were at $11.99 or $9.99

But there are at least some outrageous box set deals... e.g. the Swedish label BIS recently released a 17CD box, "The Essential Sibelius", of highlights from their long running complete works of Sibelius series. Downloading the whole box from the amazon service is only $17.99. OTOH Universal's box set of complete Mahler symphonies conducted by Chailly is $65.99, prob. less than retail but not an amazing deal.

>> What is the bitrate on these?
> 256

256 VBR according to slashdot comments.

cheers matt2, that does seem a wide selection (they could, theoretically, rip every cd that they stock. but i doubt they have permission) and decent enough quality to make it worthwhile. (mine have all been 320kbps but then they have all been 89 to 150 *pence* - at least twice amazon.com prices. not that i'm complaining - same stuff on vinyl would be 4 times this).

what's annoying me recently in england is how patchy stuff is. things i've gotten used to buying from one place suddenly up sticks and move somewhere else (tectonics, first 10 on bleep, now on boomkat) or move somewhere (snocap.com) that's US only (tech itch) or just stop. or never start (virus).

oh hey this is in the uk now, with full albums on sale for THREE POUNDS.

The-Dream's Lovehate is, in the US store, just $1.99 today.

talk about a red letter day

Nina Simone's Emergency Ward for £2.37!

> with full albums on sale for THREE POUNDS.

some full albums.

great list of current top selling artists:

Top MP3 Artists

1. Janis Ian
2. B.B. King
3. Fotheringay
4. Buddy Guy
5. Phil Ochs
6. John Lee Hooker
7. Crosby, Stills, Nash …
8. Bessie Smith
9. Townes Van Zandt
10. Robert Johnson
11. Billy Bragg
12. Howlin' Wolf
13. Led Zeppelin
14. Muddy Waters
15. Guns N' Roses
16. Skip James
17. Black Sabbath
18. Albert Collins
19. Metallica
20. Blind Lemon Jefferson
21. Rage Against The Machine
22. Albert King
23. Slayer
24. T-Bone Walker
25. Kiss

Blind Lemon Jefferson really capitalising on the digital music revolution!

Metal and blues fans leading the digi-music revolution. Dudes savvy enough to buy music online, but not to steal it.

Yeah, being facetious, but interesting nonetheless.

Metal and blues fans leading the digi-music revolution. Dudes savvy enough to buy music online, but not to steal it.

Yeah, imagine stealing from a man who is blind and dead. Shocking.

^^^ The voice of Broken Britain.

I have a new laptop and started using it. It is easier and faster than itunes, but beware, you can find yourself spending too much money at once.