Each music store is a little different. This showdown is all about the music stores that these companies offer?not their respective players, applications, or services. We can't help but mention them in terms of usability and integration with the store and the user experience, but we're going to try and focus on the features of the stores and steer clear of the bugs or quirks of each player.
Google Music: The New Kid on the Block is Perfect for Android Faithful, Indie Music Lovers, and Free Music Fanatics
Google Music has been around for a while, but Wednesday's launch of the music store put Google in direct competition with Apple and Amazon (among others.). The new music store has been added to the Android Market so you can access it on the web or any Android device. The web player is still as sharp as ever, and combined with Google's Magnifier music blog gives you multiple points of entry to download great free music you've never heard, and shop for albums you've been waiting for.
Who Google Music Is For
- Bleeding edge music fans and indie music lovers. People with playlists populated with bands they'll be happy to tell you you've never heard of. Google's velvet-gloved approach to independent artists was on display at Wednesday's event.
- Android faithful. Android fans will get the most benefit from the music store. After all, it will be pre-installed on every Android device, and songs you buy or add for free from the music store won't count against your 20,000 song limit.
- Music fans on a budget. Budget-conscious music fans who already have large libraries will appreciate the ability to upload a ton of songs absolutely free, and the plethora of free music already available to add to your Google Music account.
- Google+ users. Fans of Google's burgeoning social network will adore the ability to share your purchases with your circles. The Google+ integration means that after buying an album, it'll make sense to share it so your friends can listen and let you know what they think. Even better, create a "Music Lovers" circle on Google+ where you all trade music suggestions and post your purchases.
Pros
Google Music's biggest perk is that aside from the songs themselves, it's free. Accounts and storage for 20,000 songs is free, as is additional storage for any free or purchased songs. The music store boasts a 13 million track catalog of songs from three of the four major labels and thousands of indie artists. Tracks come in DRM-free 320kbps mp3 files, and you don't need to download another app to get access to your purchases. They're automatically added to your Google Music account (you can download them there), and are available instantly in the web player and on your Android device.
Indie music lovers and independent musicians will love Google's new music store. After all, $25 for the Artist's Hub gives you access to 200 million Android devices, not to mention the Google Music users who use the web player on their desktops or iOS devices, and 45 million Google+ users. No other music store has embraced indie music the way Google has, and that's huge, not just for indie musicians and fans, but DJs, basement bands, and anyone else who wants to get their name and their music out there. Hear that? It's the last nail being driven into MySpace's coffin.
Google's music store is pretty compelling, especially for Android users (although the web player on iOS is slick too), prefer webapps to desktop players, or own a lot of music already they'd like to take with them.
Cons
One drawback to Google Music is that it's only available in the United States. It's unfortunate, but it's a reality of dealing with the music industry in different parts of the world. The agreement that works for labels in the US may not be the agreement that works for the labels in the UK, or in Australia. These things take time, and Google decided to play on its home turf first.
Speaking of labels, the gaping hole in the music store where Warner Music should be is unfortunate. One Google rep on-stage at the event casually mentioned that "other labels are welcome if they choose to join," clearly a statement designed to both point the finger at Warner for missing the bus and assure viewers that Warner should be along shortly. Here's hoping they are.
The only other minus we could find is pricing. Songs are competitively priced, but in more than a few cases they're not the best price. This makes sense, since Amazon and Apple have history and a bit more bargaining power, but we live in a time where the difference between a $0.99 track and a $1.29 track can mean a lost sale for the more expensive store.
Amazon MP3: The Pioneer of DRM-Free, Cheap Music Soldiers On Despite the Competition
Long before Google got into music, and before Apple was willing to remove DRM from purchased songs, Amazon MP3 came pre-installed on Android phones and allowed you to download DRM-free mp3s and copy them to any of your devices. Today, Amazon boasts a huge catalog, offers free cloud storage for your purchased music, and continuously beats the competition on price.
Who Amazon MP3 Is For
- Music fans who have to have the absolute lowest price. Amazon MP3's pricing is often the lowest across all of the major music stores, especially for popular artists and new releases. Amazon often doesn't bother highlighting popular artists the way other stores do: they assume you'll search for what you want. Instead, the front page of the MP3 store is populated with "Albums under $5," and "$0.69 songs." They want to be the value player, and it works?as long as you're not interested in cloud storage.
- Bargain hunters who live for daily deals and special events. A day without a discounted album on Amazon MP3 or a refreshed list of completely free music is a day without sunshine. Amazon may not go out of the way to highlight its free music the way Google does, but that doesn't mean it's not there.
- Amazon shopaholics and Prime members. Frequent customers are occasionally treated to $5 credits to Amazon MP3 purchases after a purchase, and those credits are pretty hard to pass up, especially considering how far your money goes at Amazon MP3.
- Kindle Fire Owners. The Kindle Fire, even though it's new, is probably one of the few devices that provides a real integrated experience for Amazon's various services. Sure, there's an Amazon MP3 app for Android, and it's an okay player, but the user experience leaves a little to be desired, and the store isn't well integrated.
Pros
Amazon MP3 is overall the most affordable music store available, a feat considering its 16 million track catalog. The store has music from all four major labels, and it is a great place to look if you're searching for specific songs, special releases, and EPs that the other stores don't have. Purchases come as 256kbps variable bitrate MP3s without DRM, and can be automatically added to your Amazon Cloud Drive. When you do add them, the space they take doesn't count against your overall storage limit.
It doesn't hurt that Amazon MP3 is already on many Android devices. Before the Google music store existed, it was the only good way you could browse, buy, and download music directly to your Android phone. It's still a great option, and Amazon hasn't sworn allegiance to any one mobile OS. Amazon's play as the music store with one of the biggest catalogs of popular music at super-low prices makes it an attractive option, or at least a place to stop and check prices before you buy from another store.
Cons
One of the biggest problems with the Amazon music store is the Amazon Downloader. It works in most situations, but when it doesn't, it sucks badly, and the fact that you have to download an app to download the songs that you just purchased at Amazon is a nuisance at best and a troubleshooting nightmare at worst. Of course, you can always just have your music dropped into your Amazon Cloud Drive, but let's be honest, given the pricing and storage limits, is anyone actually paying for Cloud Drive?
We also really have to ding Amazon a bit for the quality of its player. The web player is no real joy to use, and the fact that the app is only available for Android leaves iOS users somewhat out of the action, which sucks. It means that iPhone and iPad owners who want to buy from the Amazon MP3 store have to buy, download, and then add their music to iTunes if they want it on multiple devices: no Cloud Player for iOS users unless they use the special iPad-optimized webapp.
Finally, if you're an indie music fan or love independent artists and labels, your mileage may vary with Amazon MP3. There are indie artists and labels at Amazon, but the focus is clearly on more popular musicians and major labels. Also, Amazon's music store is only available in the US and the UK. If you like to share music with friends, Amazon's social features are limited to Twitter and Facebook buttons to tell your friends about your purchase, and if you like to preview before you buy, you can listen to a 30 second clip of the song - a far cry from iTunes' and Google's 90-second previews.
iTunes: The Biggest Digital Music Store Still Thrives on Its Ecosystem
Regardless of what you think about Apple or the iTunes software, there's no debating that the iTunes Music Store transformed the way we enjoy music. It heralded the end of widespread piracy and proved to the music labels that you don't have to treat music fans like criminals to convince them to buy music. With the launch of iTunes Match and iCloud, the iTunes Music Store just got much more attractive.
Who iTunes Is For
- New release hunters. iTunes is the juggernaut in the digital music space for a reason. It has agreements with all of the major labels, and new launches and special editions often appear on the iTunes first.
- Cloud haters and organization freaks. iCloud and iTunes Match exist, sure, but by default all of your music purchases are downloaded to your computer via iTunes, and are stored locally. If you like taking your music with you or don't care for web players or cloud services, iTunes still delivers that "click to buy and to download" experience that makes you feel like you're getting something tangible. Plus, your music comes from a single source, with tags, album art, and metadata intact, can be organized in a single app (even if it is iTunes) and if it's lost, you can?with strings attached?redownload it.
- iOS device owners. Let's face it, the reason there's no Amazon MP3 app for iOS is because Apple has no desire to allow a competing music store on its devices. If you want your Amazon MP3 purchases on your iOS device, you'll have to downlaod them and add them to iTunes. The same applies for Google Music - the store is built-in to the Android Market, so don't expect that on your iPhone anytime soon. The iTunes Music Store, on the other hand, is right there, full of music that you can buy and download immediately. Once you do, it's synced to iCloud.
- People who need fast, easy, and cheap. iTunes' dominance isn't only due to its closed ecosystem with the iPhone and iPod. It's also the fact that iTunes is dead simple to use and shop from. The iTunes' music store plus jukebox experience is still very popular with a lot of people. Attitudes may be changing however, and fewer people want to install iTunes just to shop for music, but right now it offers a seamless union between the music you already own and new music you can purchase.
Pros
iTunes is clearly the best option for people invested in the Apple ecosystem. The music selection is massive?larger than any of the other stores?with over 20 million tracks in the catalog from all four major labels and scores of independents. Even if you don't have an iOS device, it's a great music store with a broad depth of music at solid prices. The days where everything was $0.99 are over, but the vast majority of songs are still around that mark, with older songs and releases by independent musicians often less than that. iTunes also has a huge selection of comedy, spoken-word, latin music, and other genres with narrower appeal, along with "sub-stores" created by specific companies (like Starbucks) and playlists by celebrities to feature music they enjoy.
Tracks can be previewed for 90 seconds, and purchased songs come as 256kbps DRM-free AACs. From there it's automatically added to your music collection, albums get their own playlists, and the song is added to your "Recently added" or "Downloaded" playlists. Combined with an iOS device or iCloud, iTunes is still a great music store and holistic music experience. Without either of those however, it's a huge music store where you'll have no trouble finding something you like at a decent price.
Cons
For as big as its catalog is and as deep its library is, iTunes hasn't really changed or improved in any meaningful way in years. You don't necessarily want to fix what isn't broken, and we get that iCloud and iTunes Match will give iOS users a new way to back up and access their music on other devices (even though iTunes Match doesn't stream and has no web player) but to get the most from these services you have to be fully wrapped up in Apple's ecosystem. Even freeing your music from iTunes if you prefer to listen to it on your non iOS device or in another music player can be an irritating process. Possible, but an unnecessary pain.
For as great as its shopping experience is, iTunes loses points for its lackluster social experience, which consists entirely of Ping?Apple's half-assed social network that no one really uses (unless they're using it to post to Twitter.) Plus, even though Apple bought and killed LaLa back in 2009, we have yet to see a meaningful web component to iTunes. There's iTunes Preview, but frankly, it's awful. Where other music stores are integrating social networks to help you discover music and giving you more ways to enjoy the music you buy anywhere, iTunes is spinning its wheels. That's fine for now, but it won't be forever.
The Verdict: Which Music Store Deserves Your Money?
If you've followed along with us so far or you've skipped to the end to see which service you should buy your music from, the answer is?as always?that it depends on what kind of music lover you are:
- Google Music is best for people who would say "I need access to the music I already own everywhere I go," or "I'm a huge indie music fan," and people who are onboard and comfortably seated on the Android train.
- Amazon MP3 is best for bargain hunters who don't want to buy elsewhere before checking for a better deal and want the best possible deal. It's also best for people who still aren't sure about this whole Google Music thing and have Android devices. Plus, if you don't trust Google and can't stand Apple, well, here you are.
- iTunes is best for people wrapped up in Apple's cozy blanket of walled-off products and services. Getting in from the outside with another service is a herculean feat, one that's really not worth it if you have all the music you want to buy in iTunes at good prices and you own an iOS device. You may want to check Amazon for better prices now and again, and then import the songs to iTunes.
Everyone Else: Zune Marketplace, eMusic, and the Others
Apple, Amazon, and Google aren't the only players. There are still a lot of smaller, independent music stores out there, even if most of them are struggling to get by. Bandcamp is a great indie music store that lets artists sell directly to their fans, and EMusic is still kicking around with a 13 million song catalog and DRM-free mp3s. Subscription-only services like the Zune Music Store, Napster, and even Rhapsody often sell individual tracks and walk the line between a la carte and subscription-only.
For music lovers who don't mind renting their music instead of owning it, it may make financial sense to sign up for all-you-can-eat plans where you get tons of music for a monthly fee. With the Zune store, each month you used to get to keep some of the songs you've rented, so it's a little of both worlds. They may not have the selection or mobile and cloud features that the big guys do, but these services are worth mentioning because they cater to specific markets or often go out of their way to be platform agnostic.
A Nod to Streaming Music Services
Speaking of renting music, no look at online music stores would be complete without mentioning the explosion of streaming and cloud-based music services, some of which work with music you own, and others that exist purely in the cloud. Contrary to traditional music stores, with these services you're paying for regular access to a service's music library. You don't own anything, and you don't even rent the songs themselves?you just pay to listen to them whenever you like.
Streaming music services are trendy, and many of them even allow you to cache songs offline to simulate the feeling of owning your music. Most of them are platform agnostic, and offer apps, webapps, and tools for every OS. Even so, most people use them in addition to?not a replacement for?a music store that lets them buy or listen to their own music. That may change as they grow in popularity.
Which music store excites you the most? Where will you be spending your money? Perhaps you prefer a different store we haven't mentioned, or you're giving up on buying music entirely and going the streaming route instead. Whatever you think, let us know in the comments below.
You can reach Alan Henry, the author of this post, at alan@lifehacker.com, or better yet, follow him on Twitter or Google+.
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