Blog Post Revisited #1: AmazonMP3 vs. Itunes Part Deux

Last April I wrote a blog piece comparing the prices of Amazon's MP3 service with the juggernaut of Apple's Itunes.   And I wrote that I couldn't understand why people overwhelmingly select Itunes to get their mp3's when you can get the very same album often for much less on Amazon.

And over the past year I've realized that a lot of this is marketing.  Sadly a lot of people probably don't even know that there is an mp3 store on Amazon.  Also there's the convenience factor where your purchases are automatically in your Itunes library.

However the Amazon MP3 Downloader also configures to automatically add your music to your Itunes library, so that last part is kind of a wash.

In my last post I compared the top 10 selling albums on that day across the two services, and found that while four of the albums were identically priced, the other six were all cheaper on Amazon, with a few being twice as expensive on Itunes as they were on Amazon.

And that if you bought all ten albums on Amazon you would save over twenty dollars on average than Itunes.

I thought I'd do this again using the current top selling digital albums according to Billboard.com.  So there's no bias here.  I was going to just pick the last 10 albums I bought on Amazon, but that wouldn't be fair because different days have different prices.

So this is a snapshot, of sorts, to show you what the top 10 selling albums are selling for RIGHT NOW on Amazon vs. Itunes.  Prices change, and sales go on and off, so these prices are only indicative of this very moment on July 18th 2012.

So here we go.

MORE AFTER THE BREAK:

NOTE: on Amazon there tends to be multiple issues of the same album.  Some with a digital booklet, some without, some deluxe edition, etc at various prices.  In these cases, I merely used the regular edition of the album.  That goes for Itunes as well, I used the regular edition, typically the cheaper option, instead of the Deluxe edition)

01. Katy Perry - Teenage Dream - $3.99 (AMZ) vs. $9.99 (Itunes)
02. Chris Brown - Fortune - $9.99 (AMZ) vs.  $9.99 (Itunes)
03. fun - Some Nights - $5.99 (AMZ) vs. $9.99 (Itunes)
04. Gotye - Making Mirrors - $7.99 (AMZ) vs. $9.99 (Itunes)
05. The Black Keys - El Camino - $8.99 (AMZ) vs. $10.99 (Itunes)
06.  Maroon 5 - Overexposed - $4.99 (AMZ) vs. $9.99 (Itunes)
07. Jason Mraz - Love is a Four Letter Word - $8.99 (AMZ) vs. $10.99 (Itunes)
08. Of Monsters & Men - My Head Is An Animal - $4.99 (AMZ) vs. $9.99 (Itunes)
09. The Lumineers - The Lumineers - $4.99 (AMZ) vs. $7.99 (Itunes)
10. Florence + The Machine - Ceremonials - $7.99 (AMZ) vs. $9.99 (Itunes)

As of this moment only ONE album is equally priced (Chris Brown's newest album).  The other 9 albums are all cheaper on Amazon, some dramatically so.

If you bought all 10 albums via Amazon you would pay $68.90 or an average of $6.89.
If you bought all 10 albums via Itunes you would pay $99.90 or an average of $9.99

Here you would pay 30 dollars more on Itunes for the EXACT SAME ALBUMS.  The quality of the music files on Amazon is equal, with no DRM and easily used on any device.  Itunes no longer applies DRM to their music, however some of their videos do have it.  Perhaps they have changed that since then (a year or so ago) but they have had some DRM in videos.

I think Amazon needs to do a better job of marketing and getting the word out about their many sales.  Currently they are having a sale of select R&B/Soul albums that include the brand new release of Frank Ocean's "Channel Orange" for $2.99.  On Itunes that same album will cost you $9.99.

Every month they have 100 albums by top artists priced at $5 each.  Every day there is an MP3 Deal of the Day that has an average price of $3.99, and sometimes even lower.  This past week I've picked up Bruno Mars' album "Doo Wops and Hooligans" and Phil Collin's fantastic "...Hits" album for 99 cents each.

It boggles the mind that there are so many people that still will insist on making their purchases on Itunes.  People will pay so much more, just because it's convenient.  Perhaps I'm alone in thinking it's highly inconvenient to pay so much more out of pocket for something that I can get dramatically cheaper somewhere else.

Hopefully this post and the previous one I did will sway some minds and they can save some money.