Just tried AmazonMP3. Uh, next please.

Just tried amazonMP3 and it feels like the same clunky browser-based crap as when I tried Walmart’s download service back in 2004, and every bit as diffcult to navigate as the rest of amazon’s website. I’ll never pay for music in an obsolete music format such as MP3, or a space-wasting bitrate such as 256 kbps. Go ahead and ask me how I really feel about it

What galls me, though, is that Amazon is clueless enough to think that putting the name of an obsolete music format in the name of its music download service does anything but tighten the noose that’s already going to be around its own neck on this one from the start. That, and they’re sufficiently out of touch that the iPod they portray as their leaderboard graphic is an obsolete model. Amazon sells iPods; how do they miss that?

And what really galls me is that this is so transparently a desperate last attempt on the part of some record labels to weaken Apple’s position the music industry just a bit. What, don’t think is a personal attack on Apple? Look at the two artists AmazonMP3 has chosen to feature at the top of its list: Eminem, who has publicly threatened to sue Apple to get his music out of iTunes, and Lily Allen, who is on record as disliking the way iTunes handles exclusives. Eminem is, of course, part of Universal Music, the label which keeps threatening to suicidally pull its music out of iTunes…and oh yeah, they’re the same company that just pulled NBC’s television shows out of the iTunes Store.

I’m not against the idea of a successful competing music download service, particularly one that whose songs are compatible with the iPod. And I’ve said all along that if someone really wanted to unseat iTunes, the first thing they’d do is go after Mac users, and that’s one of the few things Amazon got right. Most Windows users want to either vomit or physically attack me when I point this out, but these days the future of computing is being dictated by Mac users. Convince the Mac folks to get on board with your product or service early, and the Windows users will fall in line in a year or two; if you can’t sell the Mac users on something new, the Windows users won’t have anyone to follow. But making your service compatible with the Mac only helps if your service is worth using, and a browser-based music store with some little app that tries to cover up the fact that this is a browser-based service, is most decidedly not worth using.

Amazon, can I have my 89 cents back?