It pains me to admit this but I haven’t bought a cd in quite a while. I received some great discs for Christmas because my awesome mother-in-law looked at my Amazon wish list and pretty much dismantled it. She did that a few years ago too, and I didn’t have the heart to tell her that the version of Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap was actually the Australian version-so I got the remastered US version (which actually was nice because my existing copy was the crappy-sounding domestic).
Anyway, I don’t buy cds that much any longer because my expensive NAD player is on the fritz and I just seem to immediately burn the disc to ITunes anyway. For some of you, additional cds are a matter of space and to that I would suggest “Buy a home a designate a room for your indulgences.”
I have one; it’s the one with a bunch of my daughter’s toys littering the floor.
I love the convenience of ITunes, and to be fair, I love the same characteristics of Amazon. Strangely, I still use Amazon for physical purchases (sorry Insound and Newbury) because as soon as I get above $25, that shit gets shipped free and without sales tax.
On occasion, I get those dreaded sale emails that usually get the automatic “shift/delete” treatment, unless it’s address from one of those aforementioned retails who know I’m a softy for anything music related.
Lately, Amazon has been sending me emails about their Daily Deals which amount to big discounts on MP3s, but only for a specific time. Admittedly, I completely forget to check my email sometimes (even with the Blackberry notifies-I really go to town with the “delete prior” function on those).
But Amazon is worthy of a look and they’ve got enough data on me that they can swing for the bleachers and get a home run every now and then. Since I didn’t buy Chutes Too Narrow from them, I forgive them for suggesting it to me. But it was the price that had me doing a spit-take and clicking on their link for more titles.
The Daily Deal for that Shins release was a mere $5 for an MP3 copy of the album. I immediately found enough material that made the $5 price point attractive and Amazon has remained a fond retailer in my eyes even more than when they dangled this drool-worthy price point. Hell, I’ve got a wrong-sized furnace filter in the next room that’s at least three titles at that price.
Apparently, ITunes must know that $5 a title is a good deal too as they’re using their 70% market share to muscle against Amazon. As cool as Steve Jobs thinks that he is and as much attention as he gets when he farts, you would think there’d be enough hippie idealism left in his well-compensated skull to not worry about such things as Amazon Daily Deals. But the reality is much different as Apple has been making threats to the labels that allow their titles to be offered for little more than a steal, advising them that they will not be featured in any ITunes promotional offerings.
So if you’re keeping score-when labels bitch and moan about the $0.99 price point, Apple caves, but when music fans get a chance to download an entire album for $5 at a competing retailer-never mind its one that will ever make a real dent in Apple’s market share, they get all roided up and pissy.
I thought Jobs was all passionate about music ‘n shit, but it’s obvious that he’s worried about things like “power” and “respect” even on items that won’t add dime one to his bottom line or take away from it either.
Meanwhile, my fucking Extras episode that I bought from ITunes stopped playing after a few views (I can hear the audio just fine, but get nothing but color static on the display), and I can’t find anyone at Apple to help fix it.
Their advice? Buy the episode again.
No thanks, maybe I’ll order the complete season from Amazon instead.
No comments:
Post a Comment