2008 Woodie Awards
Amazon vs. iTunes
Ryan Chartrand - U-WIRE
Issue date: 10/8/07 Section: College Life
Forget the Blu Ray vs. HD-DVD war, it's time for Amazon and iTunes to get in the digital boxing ring and go head-to-head.
Amazon.com recently launched its beta digital music portal dubbed Amazon MP3, which will feature two million songs from 180,000 artists and 20,000 labels. But that's not all: All of the MP3's from major labels EMI and Universal and thousands of independent labels are DRM-free.
For those unfamiliar with DRM (or digital rights management), it's that pesky technology built in to the songs you buy online from such services as iTunes or Napster that make it so you can only listen to your music on certain MP3 players and on a certain number of computers. Not to mention the fact that DRM stores personal information about you within the song files.
So if DRM is so widely hated, why did it exist in the first place? Copyright protection, of course. Record labels wanted some type of system to ensure that their music wasn't being spread across the Internet by the pirates of the digital sea.
Ultimately, however, the pirates won (and will always win). Anyone who wanted to convert a song with DRM restrictions into a standard MP3 needed no more than a Google search to do so. Copy protection in the digital age is always rendered useless the moment someone finds a way around it.
From a record label's point of view, DRM has been limiting their online sales because of the device restrictions, such as iTunes songs only working with iPods. Labels EMI and Universal have both made deals with iTunes and Amazon to offer parts of their catalogs DRM-free. Naturally, both labels are still a bit wary of the idea and are not yet offering their entire catalogs.
Where the uproar and the "Oh, no you didn't!" gossiping in the music industry comes from is the fact that Amazon is selling their high-quality DRM-free songs for 89 cents to 99 cents (although most appear to be 89 cents), whereas iTunes is selling their songs for $1.29.
But bad news is becoming common for Apple CEO Steve Jobs and his iTunes empire. While they are ranked No. 3 next to Amazon and Wal-Mart in the music retailer sales rankings, not everyone contracted with iTunes is happy.
Amazon.com recently launched its beta digital music portal dubbed Amazon MP3, which will feature two million songs from 180,000 artists and 20,000 labels. But that's not all: All of the MP3's from major labels EMI and Universal and thousands of independent labels are DRM-free.
For those unfamiliar with DRM (or digital rights management), it's that pesky technology built in to the songs you buy online from such services as iTunes or Napster that make it so you can only listen to your music on certain MP3 players and on a certain number of computers. Not to mention the fact that DRM stores personal information about you within the song files.
So if DRM is so widely hated, why did it exist in the first place? Copyright protection, of course. Record labels wanted some type of system to ensure that their music wasn't being spread across the Internet by the pirates of the digital sea.
Ultimately, however, the pirates won (and will always win). Anyone who wanted to convert a song with DRM restrictions into a standard MP3 needed no more than a Google search to do so. Copy protection in the digital age is always rendered useless the moment someone finds a way around it.
From a record label's point of view, DRM has been limiting their online sales because of the device restrictions, such as iTunes songs only working with iPods. Labels EMI and Universal have both made deals with iTunes and Amazon to offer parts of their catalogs DRM-free. Naturally, both labels are still a bit wary of the idea and are not yet offering their entire catalogs.
Where the uproar and the "Oh, no you didn't!" gossiping in the music industry comes from is the fact that Amazon is selling their high-quality DRM-free songs for 89 cents to 99 cents (although most appear to be 89 cents), whereas iTunes is selling their songs for $1.29.
But bad news is becoming common for Apple CEO Steve Jobs and his iTunes empire. While they are ranked No. 3 next to Amazon and Wal-Mart in the music retailer sales rankings, not everyone contracted with iTunes is happy.
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