AmazonMP3: Synchronicity
News Analysis. Pssst. How about a really good deal, Police involvement assured? |
Amazon's DRM-free MP3 store now offers Crazy Eddy deals, and these prices really are insane. Last Tuesday, Amazon enhanced its "Special MP3 Deals" section with "Daily Deals" and "Friday Five" discounts. Amazon had already offered discounted MP3 singles and albums, but the new deals are exceptional values compared with the iTunes Music Store.
Today's Daily Deal: Police's album "Synchronicity" for $1.99. Already, Amazon sells the album for $2 less than Apple. A buck ninety-nine—the price of two iTunes singles—is a $7 savings off Apple's price.
Granted, iTunes has the "remastered" version, but in my experience original albums are usually better. "Remastered" is typically code word for leveling the instruments and often boosting the base, which is done specifically for MP3s. Particularly for older albums, the original recordings offer more ambiance because the musical instruments aren't equally placed and at the same sound level.
Amazon's "Synchronicity" is DRM-free, while Apple's album is rights-protected and half the bit rate (think lower audio fidelity). I'm not even a big Police fan, but $1.99 is too good a deal to pass up. Besides, the whole album is worth "Every Breath You Take," which has got to be the most ironic love song released in the past 25 years. You knew it was a song about stalking, right?
Sting said about the song in 1993: "It sounds like a comforting love song. I didn't realize at the time how sinister it is. I think I was thinking of Big Brother, surveillance and control."
The Friday Five is a selection of five albums available for five bucks each through the weekend. Amazon also offers some free tracks, like Apple, but, again, DRM-free. I don't even much like OMD's song "If You Leave," but free made for an easy download while writing this post.
I don't mean to sound like an AmazonMP3 store commercial, but these deals really are insane. It's one of the benefits of competition. The iTunes Music Store is huge—that's 5 billion songs sold, baby. Amazon is the newcomer, with a huge DRM-free library and loads of incentive to cash those languishing CD sales into digital downloads. Apple isn't the successful incumbent here, but the displacer. Retailers selling CDs are the big kahunas with loads of incentive to keep their music sales from going elsewhere.
Daily Deals is a real nice touch. It acts as a hook to keep people coming back to AmazonMP3 every day and off-music day Friday. Once Amazon gets the customers in the store, they might buy something else.
