DISinformation!!!

where do you get your facts?!

Wiley publishers must be as ignorant as you to have published your book on Digital Propaganda. what a joke. you're spreading rumors, feeding false info to the world. your article, as proven point by point at MacDailyNews (http://www.macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/salon_amazon_mp3_store_vs_apple_itunes_store/) proves 99% of your arguments are wrong. how can you be so irresponsible as a journalist/author?!!

unless your sources are UK's Page Three newspapers or US's tabloids. or maybe your iQ should be checked. shame on you.

there are too many journalists/researchers out there. most of them, like lawyers and doctors, shouldn't even be permitted to work. period.

get an education or get a life, but stop the disinformation of our society. the world is screwed up enough with all this political incorrect b.s. change careers if you have to, please!

for the sake of truth & objectivity!

thanks!

First of all, get your facts straight if you're going to write an ariticle about something. It is simply not true that iTunes is locked in or that iPod and iPhone are your only options to play your tunes on a mobile device. Aside from all those laptops, you can play your iTunes bought music on any mp3 device out there if you really want. There is a snyergy between iTunes and iPods, but it is not a lock.

More importantly, you seem to fail to realize that Amazon mp3s wouldn't even exist if it wasn't for the ground broken by Steve Jobs and Apple. In fact, the only reason they are able to offer the cheaper DRM free songs is that some of the major lables want the freeedom to raise and vary their prices as they wish and once again bundle their songs so that in order to get the song you want you have to buy other songs you don't want ...in Amazon they've found a willing partner to again screw the customer as they wish. So for now they entice you with this very good and welcome deal, and writers like you help by singing praises of "freedom", but like the drug dealer, if they succeed then see if your freedom endures.

Universal is not going to Amazon because it wants to charge cheaper prices than iTunes or offer DRM free songs as iTunes has asked them to do. They haven't been complaining that Apple is forcing them to charge more than they want and to keep their songs hobbled by DRM when they'd rather sell them DRM free. They'd rather do just the oppisite but first they had to find a willing partner and lure you away from iTunes. If iTunes loses it's leverage as a result, you can see if Amazon stands up to the labels the way Apple has. You'll probably just watch your illusionary freedom vanish.

hank

houston

"I love the iTunes Music Store. When Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled the shop in the spring of 2003, I called it revolutionary, and who can argue that it's been anything but?" Farhad Manjoo writes for Salon.

Manjoo writes, "Still, iTunes has always seemed like a stopgap measure, something to tolerate until the music industry got its act together. I think of it, now, as a place to buy music that I like, but not a place to get music I love. If you love something you want a permanent copy, and music from iTunes is fundamentally ephemeral: Nearly everything you purchase from the store will never work on any device not made by Apple."

MacDailyNews Take: iTunes Store-purchased content work on Mac or Windows PC desktops and notebooks, can be burned onto music CDs and played on any CD player and - by ripping said CD - played on any MP3 player on Earth. It's quite simple. Known to just about anyone who's ever used iTunes. Yet, it's amazing how many people get this wrong either by lazily repeating ignorance or intentionally spreading disinformation, isn't it?

[And, as MacDailyNews reader "kenpet" notes below: You can also use iTunes to convert your non DRM music files to mp3 which is playable anywhere. Just set your iTunes Preferences: Advanced: Import Using to "MP3 Encoder" and you can then convert any track to MP3 under iTunes' "Advanced" menu.]

Manjoo continues, "This week, Amazon launched a beta version of a music store that breaks this lock-in."

MacDailyNews Take: You know, the "lock-in" that doesn't exist. iPods do not require iTunes Store purchases. The iTunes Store does not require iPods. Is that simple enough for you, Farhad?

Manjoo continues, "All of Amazon's tracks are sold as unrestricted MP3s, free of Digital Rights Management, or DRM -- they will work on just about any music player in the world, including an iPod. The store marks iTunes' first real competition. In fact, I think it kicks iTunes' buttons."

MacDailyNews Take: And we're supposed to care about what you think because so far you've gotten extremely simple facts completely wrong? M'kay, Farhad.

Manjoo continues, "Here's the main way Amazon runs circles around iTunes: I kid you not, shopping for digital music at Amazon simply feels better than shopping on iTunes. That's because everything is unrestricted. You don't have to consider where you're going to play the songs or if you plan to keep them for the long run... Most of the tracks on iTunes, meanwhile, are gummed up by Apple's copy-protection scheme, called FairPlay. Under these restrictions, you can put your songs on just five computers at a time; make only seven CD copies of a particular playlist; and, if you want to go mobile, the iPod and iPhone are your only option."

MacDailyNews Take: Quick, alert the manufacturers! Mac and Windows PC notebooks are not "mobile." Although, for some reason, we see people - on planes, for example - listening to something with white earbuds plugged into their notebooks. Must not be music. Oh, "only" seven CDs (until you change the order of a song and can burn seven more). Regardless, all you need is one CD and - Boom! - unrestricted Psychic well-being out the yin-yang.

Manjoo continues, "As wonderful as it has been to see Apple change the music business -- and make no mistake, that's what it did; Amazon's store is only possible because Apple paved the way -- nobody benefits from a digital-music monopoly."

MacDailyNews Take: Farhad really screwed up here; he got something right.

Manjoo continues, "From now on when I look for music, I'm going to go to Amazon first. Only if I don't find something there will I think about buying from iTunes. If you value your freedom, I recommend you do the same."

Full article here.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader "Kevin" for the heads up.]

MacDailyNews Take: You go to Amazon first if you're interested in saving some money, not because of some ignorant dope scribbling about the value of "freedom." People who are looking at Amazon forget that prices are not static. These could be introductory prices for all we know. If the labels are giving better pricing to Amazon, and artificially manipulating the market, then Apple - and perhaps Apple's lawyers - are going to have something serious to say about it.

Competition is good. Apple's Steve Jobs called for the end of music DRM. Despite selling billions of tracks, Apple makes little or nothing on iTunes Store. So, use the store that offers what you want, whether it be cross-platform support, file formats, bit-rates, selection, and/or prices. iTunes Store is in no way material to Apple's future success. We plan to check out both Amazon and iTunes Store when buying music - because they both support Macs and iPods. We'll probably buy from whichever store has the best price (even though we prefer AAC over the old dino MP3 format). Competition is good. Let it work its magic.

People who look at this as "Amazon takes on iTunes Store" completely miss the real story. Jobs' call for the removal of DRM was designed to totally marginalize Microsoft, once and for all. It's the final nail in MS's coffin. Redmond will not control digital music formats. Apple won. Meanwhile, iPod sales - the hardware where Apple actually makes profits - continue unabated as iTunes Store does not and never did drive iPod purchases (which we know because 97% of music on the average iPod is not from the iTunes Store). And, believe it or not, despite recent hyperbole, Apple's iTunes Store will be just fine.