Marktopia

For the first Pick of the Week, I chose eMusic and I still recommend it for unique or indie music.  However, for music you cannot find on there, I now use the Amazon MP3 service instead of iTunes.  Going with the idea that I will want to do whatever I want with purchased music, Amazon MP3s are all DRM free at 256 quality.  While iTunes has some music with this same feature set, knowing that I don’t have to check before buying makes it very nice.  Another nice feature of the Amazon MP3 is that because it is Amazon, it remembers my purchases and every album helps with recommending new music.

Not all is perfect with Amazon MP3, for example the entirely web based interface leaves something to be desired.  You can preview tracks still, but the overall experience isn’t quite as nice as iTunes.  However, I am willing to trade off the quality of the experience for the better quality purchase.  If you havn’t taken a look at the Amazon MP3 service, I would recommend it.

Pick of the Week is my way of highlighting cool/new services and software on the web or the Mac. A few Windows applications might sneak in from time to time, but it will be rare. You can find an archive of services and software at http://www.marktopia.net/tag/potw/.

Since it was my birthday yesterday, it seems appropriate to choose the selection of lists that Amazon allows you to create as my Pick of the Week.  I am going to cover the Wishlist, Gift Organizer and Your Media Library. If you have an Amazon account, you already have access to the tools I will describe, so feel free to try them out.  You can find all of these under the Your Lists drop down on the front page of Amazon.

Wishlist

The Wishlist is a place that you can collect all of the things you might want from Amazon.  From any item in the Amazon catalog, you can choose to add it to your Wishlist.  Then on your Wishlist, you can select how many of that item you want and a priority for it.  The Wishlist has been very handy when people ask what I want for a holiday or birthday.  I can point them to the list and they then have a selection of things I definitely want.

Gift Organizer

While the Wishlist could be seen as a little selfish, Amazon also gives you tools to give other people things too.  You can use the Gift Organizer to not only keep track of people’s birthdays, but also gift ideas you might have for them.  This comes in real handy when you think of a Christmas gift for someone in July.  Instead of forgetting about it until the February after, you can make a note of it in the Gift Organizer and check back in December.  Also handy is you can add other people’s wishlists to your Gift Organizer so if you had not thought of something, you are still in good shape.

Your Media Library

Finally, after you start to get a bunch of stuff, you might want a place to organize it.  Amazon automatically keeps track of all of your purchases and adds them to Your Media Library for you to review later.  You can also add items you didn’t purchase from Amazon as well, so you can keep track of your music, movies and games in one location.  It is not as robust as something like Delicious Library or the Pedia collection at Bruji, but it is free and web based, so that is nice.  The other cool features is by rating items in Your Media Library, Amazon will start coming up with better recommendations for you so you can find other games or music that you might like.

All of these Amazon features are free and part of your account, and for those of you interested, here is my wishlist.

Pick of the Week is my way of highlighting cool/new services and software on the web or the Mac. A few Windows applications might sneak in from time to time, but it will be rare. You can find an archive of services and software at http://www.marktopia.net/tag/potw/.

I am finally getting around to testing out the Amazon MP3 store, as referenced by Techory (among lots of others) last week,  and figured it would be best to compare experiences with iTunes as well. For this I am planning on purchasing 2 albums, one from the iTunes store and one from the Amazon store. Pricing, availability and features will determine which I buy from which. The two albums are

• Chicane - Far from the Maddening Crowds (chosen by recommendation of Ben Arnold)
• Immaculate Machine - Fables (Chosen because allmusic.com says they are similar to The Shins)

Chicane - Far from the Maddening Crowds

I decided to start with iTunes and did a search for Chicane. I did not find the particular album I was looking for from the artist, so I tried a search on the album name, also to no avail. I then tried the Amazon store and also did not find the album. iTunes did have a number of Chicane albums, whereas Amazon only had one song, so in availability, iTunes does win, however no music purchased.

Immaculate Machine - Fables

I searched Amazon first, hoping to give it a win, however Amazon could not find the artist at all. I then tried iTunes and we had success finding the album for$9.90 for 10 tracks. Note, I didn’t buy it because I listened to some of the 30 second samples on iTunes and didn’t care for it. Sorry Immaculate Machine.

Since the first two attempts were wins for iTunes, I figured I should go for something for sure on Amazon.

Office - A Night at the Ritz

I searched for Office and was successful in finding the band, however Amazon didn’t have A Night at the Ritz in mp3, just a CD purchase for $12.99. To be fair, I then checked iTunes and found the album right away at $7.99 for 14 tracks. I did buy this cause it was a deal, and after entering in my password to iTunes, the album was bought.

Determined to try the Amazon store, I decided to browse their selection of Indie& Lo-Fi to find something to get. After some searching, I decided on

A Twilight Sad - Fourteen Autumns, Fifteen Winters

for $8.91, the same as iTunes. I should note that previewing music was a piece of cake from the Amazon interface, just as easy as iTunes.

I tried the 1-Click download and had to install the Amazon Downloader, which I did. I was pleased to see that the instructions worked with Firefox and not just Safari. I downloaded the .amz file and it automatically opened in the Amazon Downloader and started downloading.

As each file completed, it was automatically added into iTunes for me. One disappointing part is that it also didn’t get added to the Purchased playlist. After added, I checked the ID3 tag info and it was all there, at least as much as iTunes includes. It also has good quality artwork, important in this Cover Flow world.

Conclusions

I have to say that with my small sampling of albums, I was rather disappointed by Amazon. Their interface is not bad, and the lack of DRM is nice, however for someone like me who has drank the juice from Apple, it just isn’t as nice as the iTunes Music Store experience. I was actually really surprised at this because I had really high hopes for the Amazon store, but when it doesn’t have as much music as iTunes and it doesn’t integrate quite as nice as iTunes, it will be tough for them to knock down Apple.

Today when I went to Amazon, I got a new look from the site. I am assuming this is slowly rolling out to users, but it is interesting. Here are a couple screen shots of the new site.

After experimenting with Gifttagging.com and a number of other sites, I have decided to use the built-in Amazon wishlist for now. Nothing else seems to work as easily as it and now I have a nicely organized wishlist for myself, either when I have some extra money or if someone wants to buy me something. I am going to add a link on the main page but if you don’t want to wait, here is my Amazon wishlist.