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Amazon’s DRMless MP3 Store isn’t a hit yet—but here’s why e-books would be different
December 16, 2008 | 2:04 am
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By David Rothman
Amazon’s MP3 store, offering DRMfree bliss, is far from a roaring success, with just a fraction of the market share of Apple’s iTunes. But DRM zealots in the e-book world shouldn’t take heart.
The big reason for iTunes’ persistent domination is the popularity of Apple hardware. Many Apple-loyal consumers may be afraid to venture outside the iPod fold.
Why e-books are a different story from music
But e-books are a different story. Amazon’s Kindle hardware, for example, is hardly dominant in the e-reading market. More people are downloading e-books on iPhones and other cellphones than on Kindles, for example. Even Amazon’s Mobipocket format, with software working on a number of machines, lacks the combined market share of rivals such as eReader and PDF.
What’s more, as consumers become more sophisticated and want to shift books around on different devices, DRM’s disadvantages will only grow. Meanwhile Apple continues to back off from DRM, in line with Steve Jobs’ promise, even if it isn’t doing so as quickly as many of us would hope.
It certainly would be wonderful of Jeff Bezos were consistent, followed Jobs’ example and helped major book publishers wean themselves off DRM—by way of an ePub store without DRM.
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Comments:
You know, I keep hearing that the iPhone is winning the ebook hardware game but aside from downloads of a free app from Stanza I’ve not seen anything else to support that.
I have Stanza, I know a lot of people who do – I don’t know a one who actually uses it to read. Reference, yes, read – no. I’m not saying a lot aren’t reading – but downloads of a free app from the app store doesn’t mean a whole heluva lot. Maybe there are other numbers I’m not aware of.
Thanks, Gideon. Just a tiny fraction of iPhone owners are now using Stanza, eReader and so on, but total iP sales are huge, so we’re still talking about about hundreds of thousands of e-reading people—more than half a million in the case of the Stanza app alone. Fictionwise/eReader should know the download count.
What’s more, now that Stanza, the most popular e-reading app, can read DRMed bestsellers, sales per user should increase.
Because the Kindle is so expensive, I suspect that the owners are buying more books per person than iPhone users are—but again keep in mind that far fewer Kindle owners probably exist. I have yet to encounter a Kindle owner in person at random.
Thanks,
David
Amazon’s MP3 site probably suffers in comparison to iTunes for a couple of reasons, not just because of Apple loyalty.
My first experience with the downloader for Amazon’s MP3 site wasn’t really that much of a success story. This was about one year ago… a couple of the files purchased were downloaded in highly invalid formats. And, of course, they give you only one chance to download (unless you contact customer service, but who wants that hassle? Just give us unlimited download rights! That’s where they went right with the Kindle).
Another hassle — well, as long as iPods are the dominate format, we probably won’t see anybody getting too close to iTunes. iTunes just makes things simpler with their one-stop shop. One click can buy, download, and transfer. Much simpler than going elsewhere. Basically, the same thing that’s helping Kindle win the fight. If Amazon were to work with one of the major competitors to brand a player (much like Real does with the Rhapsody players) and have some good wireless delivery on top of it, they’d probably get a great boost in the MP3 sales.
And then there’s customer awareness. Let’s face it — despite the BIG advertisement on the Amazon home page, people stayed unaware of what the Kindle was. What’s the chance that they’re going to know of the MP3s availability if they can’t see something that obvious?
However — despite all that:
http://www.thestandard.com/news/2008/10/09/itunes-stays-top-dog-music-stores-amazon-makes-strong-first-showing
That article from October shows some interesting stats. They have a slightly higher market share than the also DRM-free Rhapsody, despite the fact that Rhapsody seems to have a better marketing presence (via Verizon, commercials, and branded players). Slightly higher than the dying Napster. Tied with the totals of all other services (which has dropped significantly over the past three years). They’re still #2, gaining over those that have been in the MP3 business for years. We should look at it this way — iPod is big for the same reason Kindle is big in dedicated eReaders. When you take the iTunes factor out and compare them to everybody else with the same disadvantage, It’s pretty much a hit.
But, again. They can’t gain the market share until they can create the same simplicity as iTunes and their own Kindle.
As sales seem to show, most users really don’t seem to care about DRM… DRM is just not a huge selling point for the majority. All they care about is that their stuff will work on what they have now.
DRM and as few format options as possible will always be the preference. But, until the majority can show that they don’t want DRM, it’s probably going to be a very slow battle.
Note on branded players: it’s a bit too early still. Forgot that they *are* taking the step with the upcoming Sony player and such. Enough? Probably not. But it’s a big step.
Another factor to consider: price.
iTunes has revived the single over the album. iTunes singels cost .99, and at amazon they cost .89 (or .99). Even if we think that the average tune-buyer even knows what DRM is, and goes for the selection of iTunes Plus, it’s a difference of 1.29 vs. .89. This is a big percentage difference, but to most people on a per-tune basis, .40 is nothing.
Meanwhile Amazon’s Kindle editions are often the cheapest e-reads around when it comes to current best-sellers, the 800-lb. gorillas of the reading world. Often they are very, very much cheaper.
Here’s one more edge Amazon has: think portable music players and buying tunes online, what do you think first? iTunes. Think buying books online and what comes first to mine? Amazon.
I sure wish Amazon would tell us how many Kindles they really do sell, and that Sony would release good figures too. It would really give us a better idea about which platform is winning the competition.
A side-note: in various blogs and opinion pieces on this story on Amazon’s floundering mp3 efforts, I see again and again, the comment, ‘Most consumers don’t even know what DRM is.’ If this is true, it would apply to our beloved tower of e-Babel as well.
*sigh*
Thanks, Pond. My hunch is that many consumers sense there are problems with DRM and formats, but can’t quite articulate their worries. What’s more, many are on their first devices for, say, e-reading. Just wait until those Kindles go kaput and better tech is out there.
Thanks,
David
I think Amazon’s performance is pretty good…the claim on the linked story is they may have up to 8 percent of the download market for music. Given the huge edge the iPod platform gives Apple, I’d say that’s pretty darn good for 1 year out.
(I personally get all of my purchased music from Amazon and have had nothing but good experiences with it).