Idolator
More details have emerged on Amazon's MP3 store, which is set to launch next week after many delays: The store isn't going to be a standalone iTunes-competing behemoth as much as it is going to "incorporate its digital downloads into larger artist results sets," probably because—at least in part—two of the four major labels aren't participating in the store at all thanks to their clinging to digital-rights management like it's the last life raft on a particularly fetid stretch of the open sea. [Digital Music News]
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I'm harboring a hope that unlike gBox...
1) Amazon's digital albums will include a PDF of the booklet I'd get if I purchased the CD; not just a JPEG of the front cover, which iTunes can get for me automatically.
2) They'll have MP3s at 320 kbps, or at the very least, the bitrate advertised in plain English. gBox has no mention what-so-ever of how their MP3 files are encoded. When I emailed customer support to find out, they told me they were encoded at "either 192 or 256 kbps," and that I could find out BY PURCHASING THEM. So freaking helpful.
Also, Amazon has been very squirrelly with the details of pricing (I mean, the thing launches in a week and we don't know really anything about pricing) and, apparently, is looking to nickel-and-dime independent artists just like it does with CD sales.
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