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Amazon Undercuts iTunes With 69-Cent Pricing on New Release MP3s

Slim02 said:
I guessing you been living under a rock.. Because my Truck CD Player plays AAC, PS3, Xbox360, PSP, DSi, 3DS, my wife and daughter's Android phone all play AAC.. The list can go on... Google is your friend....
Click to expand...

notices something. Most of those devices are a lot newer. Like I said my car from 2004 can play MP3 but not AAC files. Things from back then it was iffy at best if it it could play AAC.

Mp3 plays on everything. AAC does not. MP3 is supported on older devices. AAC is not.
AAC is just not as widely support as MP3 end of story.

Top it off Mp3 is smaller at the same bit rate
http://ipod.about.com/od/introductiontoitunes/a/sound_qual_test.htm

At a certain point you really are not gaining anything. Amazon VBR is a great way to give great quality sound for a smaller file size.
 
Rodimus Prime said:
notices something. Most of those devices are a lot newer. Like I said my car from 2004 can play MP3 but not AAC files. Things from back then it was iffy at best if it it could play AAC.

Mp3 plays on everything. AAC does not. MP3 is supported on older devices. AAC is not.
AAC is just not as widely support as MP3 end of story.

Top it off Mp3 is smaller at the same bit rate
http://ipod.about.com/od/introductiontoitunes/a/sound_qual_test.htm

At a certain point you really are not gaining anything. Amazon VBR is a great way to give great quality sound for a smaller file size.
Click to expand...

The Xbox360 is only one year newer then you car, so it is not that much newer... The same for PSP too.. the first portable digital audio player to play MP3 was 1998. MP3 1995-96. AAC was 1997...

I stick to AAC over MP3 any day plus I have devices that supports AAC so I see no point in using MP3.. Also I buy CD's over mp3.. Why pay for MP3 when you can download them for free and at a higher bit-rate too.. If I am going to support a Artiest, I will buy their music on CD's...
 
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I don't buy from either of these any more after being introduced to Gomusicnow.com (or any of the other 25 similar sites). 9 cents per song, or ~$.80-$1.5 per ALBUM. Quality 320 for most newer albums and 220-300 for older. Can't beat it.
 
Slim02 said:
I guessing you been living under a rock.. Because my Truck CD Player plays AAC, PS3, Xbox360, PSP, DSi, 3DS, my wife and daughter's Android phone all play AAC.. The list can go on... Google is your friend....
Click to expand...

So because YOUR head unit plays AAC so that means he's living under a rock and has no point? :rolleyes:

I bought a JVC head unit about two years ago that had front-panel USB and iPod support and despite not being listed with WMA and MP3 on the faceplate it supported AAC. But even so, it did not support VBR AAC from USB thumb drives or CDs (iPod stuff was just passed through, so it didn't count). Thus, if I used my 256kbps AAC without VBR (my entire CD library was already converted to that), everything would be fine, but if I used a stock purchased AAC track from the iTunes store (which is 256 VBR), it would NOT play (MP3 VBR was supported, though). How many head units support Apple Lossless right now? How many advertise AAC support even when they have it (my new WRX plays AAC from the factory, but they don't exactly advertise it).

So while support has increased, especially since Apple finally ditched the DRM on music, there's no guarantee on every piece of equipment out there whereas MP3 is pretty much guaranteed to be everywhere and you can even buy used gear and it will still work.
 
mgauss7 said:
What doesn't Amazon sell? toilet paper, tampons, tooth paste, and it is worth 80 billion, when it should be worth 1 billion. It is an uninspired discounter, like online-Walmart.

On Amazon you can buy used comic books, used read softcover novels, used 10 year old PaperMate pens, it is like a giant flea market.

They need sales and prestige to keep up their scam.

High valuations should belong to high tech companies. Amazon says the Kindle is their heart, when it represents less than 0.1% of its sales.

On Amazon they sell fertilizer made from dung.

Apple is instead a high tech company. It makes money by selling high advanced technology.

Unlike Amazon, which has no research and development budget (how much research do you need to carry Q-tips and tampons?), Apple is not a scam. It is what it says it ism a high tech edge company. Amazon says the same, but it is sad flea market selling dirty used bird feeders.
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This post is wrong on so many levels - it's not even worth addressing its points other than to say it's wrong. Especially the notion that Amazon has no research and development budget. Yeah. OK.
 
Slim02 said:
I guessing you been living under a rock.. Because my Truck CD Player plays AAC, PS3, Xbox360, PSP, DSi, 3DS, my wife and daughter's Android phone all play AAC.. The list can go on... Google is your friend....
Click to expand...

I'm talking about portable music players that store music with a hard drive or flash memory that are NOT the Apple iPod models. In that case, it's only the higher-end players that support the AAC format, unless you buy Sony's current Walkman line of portable music players.
 
SactoGuy18 said:
I'm talking about portable music players that store music with a hard drive or flash memory that are NOT the Apple iPod models. In that case, it's only the higher-end players that support the AAC format, unless you buy Sony's current Walkman line of portable music players.
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And I'll add/paraphrase from those who defend Apple to the end.

The average consumer doesn't want to think about formats and codecs - they just want to download a song and listen to it on whatever device they want to.

Stings a bit when the same argument praising Apple's "it just works" is used against them, aye?
 
This could potentially be the single dumbest post I have ever read on the entire Internet. Bravo!

mgauss7 said:
What doesn't Amazon sell? toilet paper, tampons, tooth paste, and it is worth 80 billion, when it should be worth 1 billion. It is an uninspired discounter, like online-Walmart.

On Amazon you can buy used comic books, used read softcover novels, used 10 year old PaperMate pens, it is like a giant flea market.

They need sales and prestige to keep up their scam.

High valuations should belong to high tech companies. Amazon says the Kindle is their heart, when it represents less than 0.1% of its sales.

On Amazon they sell fertilizer made from dung.

Apple is instead a high tech company. It makes money by selling high advanced technology.

Unlike Amazon, which has no research and development budget (how much research do you need to carry Q-tips and tampons?), Apple is not a scam. It is what it says it ism a high tech edge company. Amazon says the same, but it is sad flea market selling dirty used bird feeders.
Click to expand...
 
Dan-- said:
Amazon sells mostly LAME encoded 256kbs mp3 files, which are pretty comparable to the AAC files ITMS sells. AAC may have a slight advantage (for example see http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/271330/256-vbr-aac-vs-320-mp3-vs-256-vbr-mp3#post_3459768), but not much.


Si!

When are they gonna start selling lossless??
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Is that true, about the 256bit? I thought they were still 128. That has kept me from even looking at Amazon.
AidenShaw said:
Agree - christmas music is quite annoying.

And the selection of Saturnalia music is quite thin.
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Well, since Christmas = Saturnalia, it's all Saturnalia music.
Rodimus Prime said:
Top it off Mp3 is smaller at the same bit rate
Click to expand...
And therefore lower quality.
 
samcraig said:
I have to wonder how many people discussing audio quality buy their movies from iTunes vs Blu-Ray.

Just asking since apparently those people are so concerned with getting optimal performance from their media.

Not to take this off topic - but too many people have been duped by all the streaming serves and cable companies to believe they're getting a true HD experience when, in fact, they aren't because of the astronomical bitrate difference between what can be streamed vs delivered by hard media at current.
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Not me. Most movie viewing comes from my collection or from Netflix. Netflix BDs in the mail, that is. And over half of the reasoning for that is the audio. I had great audio before great video.

Currently trying to decide how to begin purchasing music again. I've been out of the market for years, except for a couple CDs here and there and about 6 downloads, ever. Should I hunt down 24/96? Should I upgrade my TT and focus on vinyl? Or is CD going to have to be good enough? Possibly even some downloads for the kids' stuff to save cash.
 
Slim02 said:
The Xbox360 is only one year newer then you car, so it is not that much newer... The same for PSP too.. the first portable digital audio player to play MP3 was 1998. MP3 1995-96. AAC was 1997...

I stick to AAC over MP3 any day plus I have devices that supports AAC so I see no point in using MP3.. Also I buy CD's over mp3.. Why pay for MP3 when you can download them for free and at a higher bit-rate too.. If I am going to support a Artiest, I will buy their music on CD's...
Click to expand...

The Xbox 360 has an updateable operating system so they can add new formats over time. The 360 plays formats now that it didn't support when it first came out in 2005, including AAC. Support for it was added after it was released. You can't update a car head unit's firmware.

And my car is a 2009 and doesn't support AAC, so until I have a car that does play AAC, I refuse to spend a penny on AAC files.
 
Michael Scrip said:
Very true.

Apple sells cheap songs in hopes that you'll buy an iPod.

Amazon sells even cheaper songs... ???... profit?
Click to expand...

??? = getting customers to Amazon.com where they will most likely buy some of the bazillion other things that Amazon sells. Same reason that brick & mortar stores use loss leaders (to drive traffic into their store).


Lethal
 
yg17 said:
The Xbox 360 has an updateable operating system so they can add new formats over time. The 360 plays formats now that it didn't support when it first came out in 2005, including AAC. Support for it was added after it was released. You can't update a car head unit's firmware.

And my car is a 2009 and doesn't support AAC, so until I have a car that does play AAC, I refuse to spend a penny on AAC files.
Click to expand...

add to that AAC is not exactly a free. It has licencing cost to it. Mp3 is complete free and open.
 
I'm just putting it out there that either apple are greedy bastards, or they're offsetting the cost of the US customers by increasing the prices elsewhere. I live in Australia, where the minimum cost of a song on the iTunes store is $1.69, with most songs costing $2.19. Explain to me why this is the case when there's no physical handling, just accessing a server, and our dollar is worth more than the US dollar.

Like I said, apple are greedy bastards. I reckon amazon should off the mp3's in a variety of formats, OR in mp3, with the option of downloading a wav or FLAC file. In the case of full albums, offering an ISO of the CD would be nice. Until then, I'd prefer to stay away, for the most part I still buy CD's. I'm not going to switch to entirely digital for a long time.
 
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JAT said:
Yes, and that matters to consumers....how?
Click to expand...

Well it matters in it explains why AAC is only really in higher end devices. Lower end stuff is not going to support it because that is one of many ways to cut cost.

Boils down to this
MP3 plays in everything. AAC is hit or miss.
 
TheNorthWaves said:
considering that amazon sells mp3 format and apple sells their non-universal format, it still doesn't matter to me. Until apple gets real and starts selling MP3s I will continue to buy from amazon. But I guess they don't care.
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I guess I have the opposite view of this since I will buy from iTunes as long as they continue to provide a lossless format--and Amazon provides only a lossy format. That is more important to me than a slight price difference. AAC plays on anything I need to play it on--and it could be converted to another lossless format such as FLAC if you really wanted to get out from under Apple's proprietary format. I am also a huge Amazon fan and a Prime member and buy a lot of stuff from them--but not MP3s.
 
bobr1952 said:
I guess I have the opposite view of this since I will buy from iTunes as long as they continue to provide a lossless format--and Amazon provides only a lossy format. That is more important to me than a slight price difference. AAC plays on anything I need to play it on--and it could be converted to another lossless format such as FLAC if you really wanted to get out from under Apple's proprietary format. I am also a huge Amazon fan and a Prime member and buy a lot of stuff from them--but not MP3s.
Click to expand...

Umm Apple formate they sell in is still a lossy formate...... So much for that reasoning.
 
bobr1952 said:
I guess I have the opposite view of this since I will buy from iTunes as long as they continue to provide a lossless format--and Amazon provides only a lossy format. That is more important to me than a slight price difference. AAC plays on anything I need to play it on--and it could be converted to another lossless format such as FLAC if you really wanted to get out from under Apple's proprietary format. I am also a huge Amazon fan and a Prime member and buy a lot of stuff from them--but not MP3s.
Click to expand...

I don't want to burst your bubble but Apple sell their tracks in a lossy format. Apple's format for iTunes purcases is a different beast to Flac.
 
GuitarDTO said:
I don't buy from either of these any more after being introduced to Gomusicnow.com (or any of the other 25 similar sites). 9 cents per song, or ~$.80-$1.5 per ALBUM. Quality 320 for most newer albums and 220-300 for older. Can't beat it.
Click to expand...

It seems that gomusicnow.com is one of many, many successors to allofmp3.com, the first russian website that took advantage of russian laws to sell music very cheaply without paying the rights holders. So if Apple sells a song for $1.29, they pay $0.90 to the record company. No idea what Amazon pays when they sell the same song for $0.69. gomusicnow.com doesn't pay a penny.

Their legality is let's say dubious. What is more dubious is _your_ legality when you download music from their site outside of Russia (within Russia, it seems reasonably legal). Record companies and artists receive exactly the same payment as if you copy music from a friend or download it from some random website - none.


Rodimus Prime said:
Top it off Mp3 is smaller at the same bit rate
http://ipod.about.com/od/introductiontoitunes/a/sound_qual_test.htm
Click to expand...

I'd say he author of this website is making some stupid mistake here. Files at the same bitrate are the same size. Maybe his "256 kbit mp3" is "variable bitrate up to 256 kbit/sec" and his "256 kbit aac" is "variable bitrate of at least 256 kbit/sec" or some similar stupd mistake, or they have different album art.
 
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