This is a non-story.

Amazon is a money-losing company run by an egomaniac that gets more press than it deserves.  It keeps on changing strategy.  Building distribution methods and then changing course when it finds they’re unprofitable.  And, speaking of profits, the company derives a large part of its income from selling USED items.  Yup, they make more selling a USED CD than a new one.  Yet, the major labels see the Seattle company as its savior.  Demonstrating their ignorance once again.

Despite the brand name, Amazon doesn’t sell that many discs.  Sure, it sells them via the Net, but it’s dwarfed by big box retailers like Wal-Mart and Best Buy.  And, if having a foothold in CDs gave one an advantage in the digital sphere, why hasn’t Wal-Mart’s music store taken off?  Especially since the tracks are CHEAPER!

A subscription service.  Let’s not call it that.  Let’s call it RENTAL!

If rental were such a good deal, if the public found it so appealing, why is Blockbuster on the verge of disaster?  Why are people BUYING so many DVDs when they can rent them so cheaply?  America has an ownership culture.  Sure, in the future there might be a migration to service, but not TODAY!  Not until a much younger set comes of age.

Let’s see how you sell this.  For fifteen bucks a month you can have access to ALL the music.  Well, not the Beatles or Led Zeppelin.  And not every track on every album…  And, if you don’t keep paying, you lose IT ALL!  Shit, sounds more like radio than conventional music purchasing.

And what are the odds that independent company Amazon can create a system that actually works, when its Seattle counterpart Microsoft has been unable to do this?  I mean maybe if Google moved into the sphere I might be impressed.  Then again, Google Video is a disaster, and rather than deliver a quality product without glitches, Google just labels all its efforts "beta", so you’ll forgive them.  That’s what we need, a BETA music service to compete with Apple’s seamless solution.

Amazon IS correct in deciding to deliver files along with CDs.

But the fucked up labels can’t agree on a price.  Even though you can buy a CD and rip it FOR FREE!  Paying NOTHING extra for the files.

Oh yeah, copy protection will foil that.  And destroy your business, just ask kicked upstairs Andy Lack.  And then there’s the ridiculous position of the RIAA that ripping is illegal.  What’s next, is the RIAA gonna post a cop in every kid’s basement?  THIS is a strategy that’s gonna win.  Actually, after seven years, hasn’t the RIAA realized a legal solution IS NOT the answer?

And Sony discontinued the Bean.  And Creative keeps hemorrhaging money.  But somehow AMAZON is gonna come up with a product that will look better and function as well as an iPod.  Shit, are you DREAMING?

It takes software AND hardware.  And Apple has a huge investment in both, has for over twenty five years.  You think this isn’t an advantage?  Or, better yet, you think two separate companies,  Amazon and its hardware partner, share the same desires, are gonna be on an equal path?  Especially with Amazon’s history of screwing its partners, a la Toys R Us?

One of the fucked up things about conventional journalism, a la the "Wall Street Journal" and "New York Times", is that they’re so busy being evenhanded that they miss the story, there’s no analysis.  Didn’t Paul Krugman say if the President declared the earth was flat the paper would present this view reasonably, and not say he’s OUT OF HIS MIND?

And yes, Mr. Krugman is on the editorial page of the "Times", but his beat doesn’t include technology, and Tom Friedman rarely addresses it.  And therefore one is DRIVEN to the Net to get the real skinny on a story, from people not enthralled by that bozo Jeff Bezos.

There IS a subscription business.  Real’s Rhapsody is satisfying the demand.

It’s just not a mainstream business today.

And, what ever happened to the hype about Yahoo Music?  Heard anything about THAT subscription service recently?

Really.  The labels hate Apple because the Cupertino company knows more about its customers than they do.  But rather than wake up to reality, they want to throw in with new players willing to throw money down a hole playing by their rules unsuccessfully, like the new Napster.

How many times do we have to see this movie?  Of the labels proffering services the public doesn’t want?

The public wants to OWN a LOT of files for a CHEAP price.  This is what’s going to end up happening.  This IS what’s happening, via P2P and ripping and hard drive swapping.  Can’t the industry get in bed with the consumer instead of asshole businessmen looking to make a killing?

Really.  Don’t even bother to call me when this Amazon service goes live, if it even launches at all.  It’s IRRELEVANT!