Cool Tech Reviews

Eric Bangeman at Ars Technica:

Over the past few years, we have watched Apple climb the music sales chart courtesy of the iTunes. Last month we learned that Apple passed Best Buy to become the number two retailer in the the US in December. Now, Apple has ascended to the top of the charts, surpassing Wal-Mart for the first time ever, according to an NPD MusicWatch Survey for the month January contained in an internal Apple e-mail which was leaked to Ars Technica but has not been officially published.

Yet another industry where the Internet is putting traditional means of distribution in the shade. The CD music business isn’t over yet, but the handwriting is on the wall. Also of interest in the NPD numbers - Amazon’s music sales seem to be struggling despite their brand new (and highly touted) online MP3 store.

Back in May, Amazon announced an online music store selling DRM-free MP3s and today they launched a beta version:

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NBC recently had a spat with Apple with the result that NBC is moving the online video sales for its TV shows from iTunes to Amazon’s Unbox and in the process locking out all the Apple iPod users. This spurred CNET’s Chris Soghoian to mention the unmentionable - TV Torrents: When ‘piracy’ is easier than legal purchase:

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I just got finished gushing over Amazon’s forthcoming DRM free music store which features tunes from big publisher EMI and many independent labels and now comes news that puts the whole DRM free music download movement in doubt:

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Back in April I observed that the Apple-EMI deal to provide DRM free downloads in the iTunes store was non-exclusive, and today the second shoe dropped as Amazon announced they will “will launch a digital music store later this year offering millions of songs in the DRM-free MP3 format from more than 12,000 record labels” including EMI and a lot of minor players:

“Our MP3-only strategy means all the music that customers buy on Amazon is always DRM-free and plays on any device,” said Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com founder and CEO. “We’re excited to have EMI joining us in this effort and look forward to offering our customers MP3s from amazing artists like Coldplay, Norah Jones and Joss Stone.”

Amazon didn’t specify when exactly the store would open or how much the tunes would cost, but Bruce Houghton at WebProNews has some rumors:

While the official announcement says “later this year”, sources tell us that Amazon is pushing for an “as soon as possible” launch that is primarily being held up by technology and data issues. June or July would seem a likely launch time frame as Amazon is anxious to beat competitors to the inevitable rush of DRM free product.

Amazon is also said to be offering flexible and lower pricing with full album downloads retailing at $4.99 to $8.99 and individual tracks ranging from $.89-$.99.
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We hear rumblings of more labels including perhaps some Universal product and the catalogs of some larger indies and distributed labels that have previously held onto DRM signing onto Amazon prior to launch.

Perhaps naively, I think this is the beginning of the end of DRM based music downloads, and the fact that Amazon is offering MP3s may even put a crimp into iTunes whose DRM-free offerings are only in AAC format. Who knows, even the CD’s days may be numbered.

This week Creative unveiled the Zen Stone MP3 player inaugurating the era of big name commodity players. There have been fairly generic MP3 players from a variety of little known manufacturers, but now Creative has decided to join the party and compete directly on price with the 1GB Zen Stone retailing for $39.99 while the comparable iPod Shuffle goes for $79.00.

So what do you give up with the Zen Stone compared to the iPod Shuffle? Nothing unless you are wedded to iTunes. As far as other formats, the Zen Stone will play MP3, WAV, Audible, and WMA (unprotected or protected), but there is no support for portable subscription WMA files:

On that subject, Creative told us:

Subscription support would have required much more processing power, which would have increased the cost and price of the player. We felt that the vast majority of folks would have 1GB of non-protected content and so it would be best to go with the great price of $39.99 instead of trying to support everything and offer a more expensive player.

And that’s clearly the focus - rip your CDs to MP3 and put the songs on the Zen Stone and you are good to go without any extra expenditure for music stores or subscriptions. Since the bulk of content on iPods is believed to be MP3s, it seems like a good bet by Creative if they can overcome the iPod brand cachet.

Finally, reviews of the Zen Stone are in short supply, but Tom Gideon has one at PC Magazine and it’s exactly what one would expect:

The ZEN Stone is intentionally simple. There are no sound enhancement features, there’s no screen, and no FM tuner. It is almost an exact replica of the Shuffle in terms of functionality, except for minor differences in play modes and the two players’ compatibilities with different software. If you’re not tied to iTunes and all you want is a cheap player to take jogging or even lend to a friend so they can borrow your music, the ZEN Stone is one of the cheapest quality players out there…and its emergence certainly makes it hard for Apple to justify $80 for their nearly identical player.

Bottom Line: Unless you need iTunes or a subscription service, you can’t beat the Zen Stone on value in a Shuffle-like form factor.