Kudos to Amazon for getting things right when no one else seemed to be able. Their newly-launched MP3 service, featuring music that is truly free of digital rights management, is clean, expansive, and... did I mention DRM-free?
While other outfits, most notably eMusic, have long offered clear and free MP3s, their selection is fairly limited, and unless you're a huge fan of, say, Deerhoof and similar indies, you're often left out in the cold. Itunes, on the other hand, has just about any music you'd ever need, from the big labels and independents. It's just that it's, well, evil. {Evil, here, indicated by freedom-choking DRM limiting how and where you listen to music, as well as contributing to the growing design-trumps-all Apple empire where software doesn't have to work as long as it looks pretty.}
Amazon's MP3 downloads sound great. They're often 89 cents per song or 8.99 an album, beating out the usual 99 cent sale tags from competitors by walking away from the one-price-fits-all model. And they're ready-to-go, good old MP3s. No weird proprietary file formats, no 5 computer limitations, just straight-forward use-as-you-will goodness.
Thanks Amazon.
It's about damn time.
