Apple’s iTunes music store faced a new challenger as Amazon introduced a rival online MP3 service with knockdown prices. Unlike Apple’s offering, which limits the devices that tracks can be played on and the number of copies that can be made, Amazon offer customers music with no restrictions under “digital rights management”. Julian Monaghan, head of music at Amazon, said: “There are a large number of consumers who aren’t in the digital market yet. We want to make it as easy as possible. We now have digital, vinyl and CDs, so consumers only need to come to one place. “We know that there will be a lot of people given MP3 players for Christmas and the site will experience a lot of traffic.”
Rivals said that Amazon offered inferior sound quality to cut download times and data-transfer costs. Ben Drury, chief executive of 7digital.com, the first online retailer in Europe to offer DRM-free MP3s from all the main labels, said: “Our sole aim is to provide consumers with a first-rate music delivery service because that’s what we are and what we know. Their MP3 downloads are only 256kps quality so they are not delivering the high-quality 320kps MP3s, unlike 7digital.com.”
But he added: “It’s great that general retailers like Amazon clearly recognise the importance of digital music for consumers and the MP3 universal music format which works on all devices. Amazon’s entry into the market is good news for the digital music consumer and will accelerate the migration from physical format to digital. This is another . . . blow for iTunes.”