iTunes (finally) gets a competitor

Amazon unveiled its long awaited digital download service today. It will be interesting to see where this leads, because this is the first true competitor to the iTunes Music Store.

Unlike the various Playsforsure stores, Amazon sells files that will play on iPods without any burning or re-encoding. These are just straight-up MP3s that will play on the iPod and just about every other digital music device ever made.

Buying tracks or albums is just as easy as iTunes, since iTunes licences the 1-click patent from Amazon. Amazon manages to overcome the disadvantage of living in a web browser as opposed to a music library by using a download helper to add purchases automatically to iTunes. (Installing the download helper also includes a free download of "Energy" by The Apples in Stereo.)

More impressions at Coolfer.