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Amazon May Take On iTunes, iPod
Thursday, February 16th, 2006 at 8:15 AM - by Staff
Online retailer Amazon may be preparing to take on the iTunes Music Store and iPod. According to The Wall Street Journal, Amazon is negotiating with four global music companies to help it develop a digital subscription music service that will set it apart from the other online music providers, but more importantly, will set it apart from the iTunes Music Store (iTMS).
Amazon is also looking to sell its own digital music player line composed of products it designs. The players would likely come preloaded with music at a deep discount, in essence copying the mobile phone industry's tactic of selling phones at a discount as a part of the service package.
The music service could launch as early as this summer, and include music from Universal Music Group, Sony BMG, Warner Music Group Corp., and EMI.
To date, the only company that's been successful at selling its own music player and service is Apple, and it is the only company offering a music purchase and download system instead of a monthly subscription-based service. It's also the only MP3 player manufacturer to have strong long-term success with its players.
Since January, Dell and Sony have both dropped some of their MP3 players because of Apple's dominance in the market. Although Amazon is the dominant online retailer, it's unclear if it can go head-to-head with Apple's dominance in the digital music market, especially since it is adopting the less popular subscription service model.
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