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iTunes V.S. Amazon for music

iTunes or Amazon ?

  • iTunes

    Votes: 14 45.2%

  • Amazon

    Votes: 11 35.5%

  • Other/Pirate

    Votes: 6 19.4%
  • Total voters
    31
  • Poll closed .
rican

rican

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 14, 2008
374
26
Party in the USA
I was going through some threads and I noticed that a lot of people have their discrepancies about buying via iTunes or Amazon...

Which do you use and why? Is there a difference between sound quality / music quality or just the price? Elaborate.
 
I use Amazon because they are cheaper. I started using them back when iTunes still had DRM and lower quality and I have been using them ever since. Their download app integrates with iTunes on my system, so it's easy to use.
 
steve2112 said:
I use Amazon because they are cheaper. I started using them back when iTunes still had DRM and lower quality and I have been using them ever since. Their download app integrates with iTunes on my system, so it's easy to use.
Click to expand...

But in terms of music quality which one is best? CDs from the store, iTunes or Amazon?
 
ricanloveee said:
But in terms of music quality which one is best? CDs from the store, iTunes or Amazon?
Click to expand...

CDs are going to have better quality than any digital form except for the lossless formats such as FLAC. Initially, iTunes music as DRM locked and at 128kbit/s, but a couple of years ago they finally removed all DRM and offered everything at 256k. Amazon is also at 256k and DRM free. I'm not sure where you can buy lossless music digitally, but I'm sure there are plenty of places.

Personally, I could tell the difference between 128 and 256k, but my hearing isn't good enough to tell the difference between 256k and higher rips.
 
steve2112 said:
CDs are going to have better quality than any digital form except for the lossless formats such as FLAC. Initially, iTunes music as DRM locked and at 128kbit/s, but a couple of years ago they finally removed all DRM and offered everything at 256k. Amazon is also at 256k and DRM free. I'm not sure where you can buy lossless music digitally, but I'm sure there are plenty of places.

Personally, I could tell the difference between 128 and 256k, but my hearing isn't good enough to tell the difference between 256k and higher rips.
Click to expand...


This clarifies a lot, because now I will buy entire albums in-store. I like high-quality music because I listen to it loudly, and have powerful speakers in car, and at home. (not the earphones, not trying to damage my hearing) but I do enjoy music loudly in an open space.

I wonder why iTunes isn't the superior in quality, which I originally thought.
 
When I buy digitally, I usually go with Amazon. Almost always they have a cheaper price. I still like CDs too - and when I buy those I buy on Amazon always.

iTunes does discount some albums here and there, but it seems rather rare.
 
Depends where is cheapest. I'd say ½ and ½. They both integrate well with iTunes so I have no issue. I also buy a lot of stuff on CD though.
 
I like buying physical CDs. I'd say I get about 50% of my music off Amazon and 50% at concerts.
 
I use iTunes because it arguably has the best selection, and because I am entrenched in the Apple ecosystem. Therefore it's easy for me.
 
I use a combo of both stores - I always check Amazon first, because usually they're cheaper.

For cloud-ased music storage, if I used it I'd use iTunes Match. Amazon Cloud Player is nice, but the main gripe is I either buy all my music all over again through Amazon or I spend hours upon hours uploading.
 
I always preferred iTunes. Every time I would hear people say that Amazon was cheaper, I would check there for the song that I was looking for and saw it listed there for the same price that iTunes had, so I ended up buying in iTunes.

iTunes has as of November 1, disabled my account and will not allow me to create another so now I have no choice but to buy music and video from Amazon.
 
Amazon can be cheaper at times but the only tunes I've downloaded off of them are due to free song credits.

I'm inclined to go with iTunes just because of iCloud now.
 
I use both iTunes and Amazon, each has it's advantages.

Overall I get so much enjoyment out of my Kindles, and the new Fire, that I remain a very happy long term Amazon customer. Nothing beats a Kindle for reading.

When it comes to web access, I like my iPad 2 best, since that's one of it's core competencies in my usage pattern.
 
I was always hesitant about buying songs digitally - I've lost my collection before (even backing up all my songs took 3-4 DVDs).

Thanks to iCloud and being able to redownload music whenever I want (basically free cloud-based backup), I don't have to worry about "what happens if my HD crashes? Will I have to pay to get all this stuff back?"

I've started to slowly re-purchase a lot of my most-listened to music thanks to free iTunes gift cards that I got through HP training events - I want to get to the point where even if I lost my original CDs, I won't need to worry about it, and honestly I don't need to be lugging around a huge case full of CDs anyway.

Everything (including music, looks like) is going to be online soon...
 
For my own collection, I prefer physical media like CDs and then rip them in ALAC. I also subscribe to MOG for listening to albums I don't have in my own collection.

FYI MOG is a rental service like Rhapsody, Spotify, etc.. It uses 320kbps for wifi streaming and downloads.
 
It depends. I mainly use iTunes for my music, but I'll use Amazon a lot as well. Only cause I buy a lot of music from Germany that isn't available on iTunes.
 
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