Tuesday, June 21, 2011 at 2:58 PM I previously wrote about potentially switching to the Amazon MP3 Store. I'm still ultimately undecided, but Apple's iCloud announcement really drew me back over to the Apple camp. Enter Google. I just got an invitation to Google Music Beta. Over the next few weeks I'll be testing the service and I'll write up my thoughts.
Cloud Services Wednesday, May 25, 2011 at 12:25 PM I currently use iTunes for almost all my music purchases. The only real exceptions are when the Amazon MP3 Downloads has a better price on the song or album I'm interested in purchasing.
I once chose iTunes over Amazon because I was thinking I was an audiophile and that I could hear the difference. I'm a bit more realistic these days now that I'm admitting I've probably damaged my hearing from years of marching band, proudly marching with my clarinet in parades while the entire drumline was hammering away at their drums behind me. I don't even know that there is any quality difference between the files encoded with the modern Amazon MP3 encoder or the Apple AAC encoder. Since I'm unable to tell a difference I'm running out of reasons to use the iTunes store over the Amazon MP3 Downloads service.
Amazon's solution has some intriguing benefits. First, MP3 files play on just about every device out there, including the media player in my car. This, unfortunately, still is not true of the AAC format. Second, the mp3 is very well supported in iTunes so I can continue to use iTunes to manage my music library. Third is the Amazon Cloud Drive, automatic free backup of the music you purchase. Apple iTunes does not currently have a solution for automatic backup. Rumors say this may be on the way, but Amazon has it today. Fourth, and finally is the Amazon Cloud Player, which can access the content stored in your Amazon Cloud Drive and stream it to you computer or mobile device. This helps with the problem of not being able to put certain songs on my phone because I'm out of space.
So, now I have to wonder, what is it that is keeping me loyal to iTunes? Am I just an Apple fangirl who can't bring herself to move to better solution because it's not shiny and made by Apple? Well, yes that may have something to do with it, I'll admit it. But I would really like to see what Apple's offering in the cloud locker space will end up being, and I'll wait until then to make my decision. So for now I think I'll just decide which to use at the time of purchase.
One last note on formats. I wish there was viable service out there that used a lossless codec on very high quality recordings. Yes file sizes are larger, but it would satisfy my inner desire to be an audiophile.
Miranda Janell Ragland
I came across another factor in the decision today, mobile integration. When I wrote the original post I touched on the topic a little bit. I talked about how the Amazon Cloud Player can stream to mobile devices. I did, however, forget to mention the deep integration between iTunes, OS X, and iOS. This is a major plus for the iTunes store. This came up today when I heard a song and decided to lookup the artist. I fought my initial instinct to open the iTunes app on my iPhone, instead I opened the Amazon.com app. I found the artist without any issues, but then noticed that I could not purchase digital content through the app.
There are numerous likely reasons why the app wouldn't allow digital content to be purchased, but the top of them is delivery of digital content. The Amazon.com app would have to have to write the files to the media library, and I'm not even sure that is something that is possible in the iOS environment. I probably should know that since I'm a hobbyist iOS developer, but let's just ignore that for now. There are a lot of arguments that can be made about the iOS App Store ecosystem and approval policies, and what developers are allowed to do, but that's all a subject for another day. For now, it is what it is, and that is all. Unfortunately in the pros and cons list of using the Amazon MP3 store, iPhone integration is a major con for me. With WWDC and Apple's iCloud announcement right around the corner. I'm starting to think I'm going to be staying a very loyal Apple fangirl.
Cloud Services, Music 
