I just bought the new Green Day album on Amazon MP3 Downloads today. It is on sale for only $5. I’ve spent more money buying music in the past few months since Amazon MP3 Downloads came out than in the past 5 years probably. Still haven’t spent that much, but I’ve spent more.
Reason 1: No DRM. I can download it on my Windows laptop here in Qatar and then when I get home transfer it to my Mac and iPod with no problems. Even iTunes didn’t get this right until a few months ago.
Reason 2: It’s easy. Amazon’s MP3 downloader makes it very easy to download entire albums, just about as easy at iTunes.
Reason 3: It’s actually affordable and I don’t feel like I’m being ripped off. $5 is a great impulse purchase price and is very easy to spend without any thought. $10 makes me think about it and I’ll probably end up not doing it. I just spent $5 on a smoothie here in Qatar, I can spend $5 on an album. All electronic albums should be $5. Can you imagine the sales spike? Big. It would be Big. Charging the same thing they do for CDs when they don’t have to deal with the marketing or distribution or manufacturing is dumb.
Keep it up Amazon! You’re the only company to get me to pay for music in a long time!
