No fanfare for Amazon MP3 unveiling

 

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By Stuart Turton

Posted on 3 Dec 2008 at 13:48

Amazon has quietly opened its MP3 shop in the UK, bringing an end to months of speculation on when the company would launch its iTunes rival.

The online retailer has started aggressively, offering a range of recently released albums including Kings of Leon and Coldplay for as little as £3, and individual tracks for 59 pence.

However, the prices are likely to rise once interest has peaked, and most albums appear to be between £6 and £8 with tracks available for 79 pence

All tracks are offered without the much-maligned DRM and encoded at 256kb/sec, with music from every major label covered, though the library isn't quite as extensive as iTunes just yet.

The move will certainly worry rivals 7Digital and iTunes, which has already slashed prices as Christmas approaches.

The servioce requires the customer to download a software tool that will automatically download tracks to an iTunes or Media Player library. Customers only recieve one download credit, however, meaning should you download a track and lose it, you can't download it again.