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Sounds Of The Amazon (6/2/03)
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Okay, so the possibility of AOL using the iTunes Music Store for its official online digital music sales appears to have been ground into a fine paste by last week's AOL-Microsoft settlement, but hey, what's 26 million potential customers, right? No big loss. Besides, there are other fish in the sea. We think. There are more than 26 million fish in the sea, aren't there? We're not exactly Aquaman, here, but it seems to us there should be more fish than that.
Well, here's hoping. And if there are more fish down there in the Briny Deep, Apple's going after 'em instead of letting 'em wind up in Microsoft's Big Honkin' Net like all 26 million specimens of AOLus Subscribicus. The New York Post reports that "Apple Computer and Amazon.com are working on a deal that will make Apple's popular new online music store available on Amazon." To prove it, the Post has a photo of that guy who sells tacos. Hey, nifty! Fish of the Amazon-shopping type are actually pretty plentiful, if we're not mistaken, so landing this catch might well make up for the sting of the one-- er, 26 million-- that got away.
Of course, the Post doesn't have anything solid to back up this claim, but it's not exactly way-out sci-fi head-trippy stuff, here. About the only stumbling block we can see is, how exactly does this tie in with iTunes? AOL could have easily built iTunes functionality into its proprietary client software, but Amazon doesn't have proprietary client software-- customers just use a web browser. Apple certainly won't sell unprotected AACs through Amazon (even if it wanted to, the labels would storm the castle with torches and pitchforks), so if Amazon's digital music customers need iTunes anyway, why wouldn't they just shop through that?
Assuming that this whole Apple-Amazon thing is true in the first place, we figure it might go a little something like this. Yes, you do need iTunes, and you can still shop directly through the iTunes Music Store. But if you happen to be at Amazon anyway and you stumble across a CD you like, Amazon provides an option to buy the downloadable iTMS version instead. You pay the same way you pay for any other Amazon merchandise, and the purchase info is tied to your Apple ID. Then the next time you launch iTunes registered to that ID, it asks if you want to download the music you purchased. Okay, so it's a tad cumbersome, but it does allow for those ever-popular Amazon impulse buys.
What we're hoping to see is an option at Amazon whereby, when you order a physical CD, you can also download the iTMS version for an extra buck or so. Ta-daa-- instant gratification plus the knowledge that the "real thing" is on its way. How can it miss?
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SceneLink (3986)
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And Now For A Word From Our Sponsors |
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 | | The above scene was taken from the 6/2/03 episode: June 2, 2003: Apple drops prices on all 12- and 15-inch PowerBooks; we smell "channel clearance." Meanwhile, AOL may be out, but now Amazon is looking to hook up with the iTunes Music Store, and Uncle Steve's approval rating is back on the rise...
Other scenes from that episode: 3985: "We Coulda Had A V8!" (6/2/03) Okay, by now, anyone who actually cares has seen last week's Jeopardy! episodes featuring Katie, AtAT's own resident fact-checker and Goddess of Minutiae, so we shouldn't be spoiling anything by mentioning that she scored twelve grand and change in her first game, which she won by a single dollar thanks to some judicious wagering in a harrowing round of Final Jeopardy... 3987: Approval Up, Memory Down (6/2/03) Well, this is an annoyance arising from our recent hiatus that we hadn't anticipated: Phantom Scene Syndrome. Trust us, it's not the title of the next Star Wars movie-- although, come to think of it, it beats the pants off of "Attack of the Clones"; we're campaigning for the third one to be named "Night of the Brain-Sucking Space Lampreys" to lend it an air of class...
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