So, Amazon is continuing to try and increase it's share of downloaded music, and as Christmas week is one of the busiest when it comes to purchasing mp3's, they have discounted 80% or so of the songs on their site to 49 cents. My guess is the songs that aren't discounted is because the labels wouldn't allow it.

Either way, it's an interesting move on their part, and continues to bring up the question: What should mp3's really cost??? And will someone come along and steal a large portion of the marketshare, forcing iTunes to price competitively?

One thing that should be pointed out is that the reason that mp3 sales soar the week after Christmas is because so many people get itunes gift cards, which of course can't be used on amazon. But my bet is that amazon is counting on people also getting cash for Christmas, and really, why would someone pay $1.29 for We Found Love when they can pay 49 cents (no shade using this example, I only used it because it's #1 on Amazon Mp3s right now)

http://www.amazon.com/Best-Sellers-M...HM5ECNNT3MJ63M

With sales lagging for digital songs the last couple of weeks, I can't help but think that Amazon is onto something. iTunes is overcharging for songs, and is doing so because they can. They don't have enough competition to enforce fair pricing. But hopefully that will change soon, with Amazon leading the fight.

In addition, some of the best selling albums of the year are $4.99 for the week, like Coldplay and Drake. Some of them, such as Amy Winehouse's new one, have been out less than 4 weeks and won't be eligible for charting. On a regular week, that might not be a big deal, but the week after Christmas, it might be a substancial amount because even though Amazon has a small marketshare, sales explode Christmas week for digital music.

http://www.amazon.com/Best-Sellers-M...3H1AJ972V2BQA6

Side note: all the singles are above the 39 cent level, so they will all be eligible for Billboard.

iTunes will sell the most. period.

Dynamite is number 20? Kill me.

has Amazon done this in the past, or is this the first time?

should be interesting to see how sales will turn out next week

coming for that 6x plat

iTunes will sell the most because people are lazy to buy on Amazon MP3, I guess.
The General Public probably doesn't even know about the Amazon discounts

Too late everyone would have there iTunes gift cards! If Amazon really want get sales they better do what iTunes are doing sell gift cards.

1. Duh!

2. You missed the entire point of the conversation. It's the beginning of a revolution in digital music. A crossroads of sorts. If Amazon succeeds in gaining marketshare, iTunes will be forced to price comparitvely (maybe 69 or 79 cents). If amazon fails, it might prove that iTunes is too powerful to overcome, and we'll be paying $1.29 for music forever.

In terms of the music industry and it's continued shoft into digital music, it's actually a very important discussion.

Amazon does sell gift cards

http://www.amazon.com/gp/gc/ref=topnav_giftcert

People are so quick to poo poo Amazon mp3 store... you so easily forget that the mp3 store sold approx. 400 000 copies of Born This Way in about 2 days.

Bottom line is that people like deals, and when they hear about them, they buy.
But that alone is 400 000 who have used the amazon mp3 store in the past.

That would be great, I hope Amazon succeeds so the songs can be cheaper

rihanna ahead of lmfao on amazon! bring those extra sales to compensate for itunes discount to block them!

I hope Amazon is bigger for now cuz Rihanna's on top we need to get 9th week !

iTunes will sell more. But Amazon has the right idea with the direction of the music industry digitally. For example, I just bought 7 tracks on Amazon that were 49 cents, and that wasn't that unreasonable at all. Albums for 5 dollars? Yes.

Rihanna Still #1 on Amazon .. B**Ch is UNSTOPPABLE

Likewise.

Their model doesn't make much sense at the moment. It costs them nothing to produce an mp3, so their overhead costs are purely keeping the store up and running. They then ofcourse have to pay the record labels their share.

But otherwise the rest is profit.
If they would sell songs for cheaper, (like in Korea), they will sell more of them. Thus their profit would be the same or even higher than it is now, depending on just how much more music they sell.

For the sake of arguement, using Amazon's 49 cent price point, if a person has a $10 gift card they can buy 20 songs. At the current price, a $10 gift card will get you 7 songs. People might find it more reasonable to buy songs at 49 cents and stop illegally downloading, thus opening up a whole new revenue stream for iTunes (the people that illegally download music, and there are plenty). Yes, there will be some people that will still say free is better than 49 cents. However, there will also be people, like myself, who both buys and downloads, who would certainly buy exclusively if they were priced more fairly. As it is though, I just can't bring myself to spend $1.29 on a song like I only "kind of" like.

The future of the music industry is in digital music.
How things evolve from here on out will be key to if the recrod labels will survive in the same form as they are now. With music being digital, illegally downloading is always going to be an option. They need to make paying for it sound like the better option (example: It's only 49 cents, and if you are downloading legally you don't have to worry about possibly getting caught for illegal downloading!)

If you don't mind, for the sake of this discussion, can you tell us how it is using the mp3 store there? I'm in Canada so don't have access to actually buy. Is it user friendly? What's your opinion on it as a whole, and do you think it's a viable alternative to iTunes.

That's amazing, you wouldn't have even been able to buy 3 whole songs on iTunes at $1.29 for what you paid for those 7 songs... I really think that if they keep this the entire week next week, and word gets out, they can sell a substantial amount of songs. Because unlike the Born This Way discount, this stretches across all fanbases...

I love Amazon mp3s. Cheaper, no tax and I get the physical mp3 in mp3 format. Dunno. Itunes is a pain the derrier. I have like 100000000000000 gift cards from iTunes.