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Amazon hits Apple iTunes with $0.99 Lady Gaga ‘Born This Way’ album (today only)

Monday, May 23, 2011 · 12:44 pm · 49 Comments

“Last month, Amazon rolled out a promotion highlighting 69-cent new release tracks in its MP3 download store, an apparent effort to draw market share from Apple in the digital download market that has long been dominated by the iTunes Store,” Eric Slivka reports for MacRumors. “The pricing significantly undercuts Apple’s own pricing, which typically comes in at $1.29 for popular new tracks.”

Slivka reports, “Amazon has made another push today with a ‘Daily Deal’ offering the new Lady Gaga album, ‘Born This Way,’ for only $0.99 through the Amazon MP3 Store. The special price is available for today only and compares to the $11.99 price point for the standard album in the iTunes Store, where an expanded edition is also available for $15.99.”

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Comment Feed

49 Comments

1 2 Next »

MEES

Monday, May 23, 2011 - 12:52 pm · Reply

Still too much money for this album.
- Alicekk
  
  Monday, May 23, 2011 - 1:19 pm · Reply
  
  You’re stupid.
  Obviously you’re not a fan, why comment on it trying to put down an artists music.
  Ugh. Waste of your and my time.
  - Cleetus
    
    Monday, May 23, 2011 - 1:34 pm · Reply
    
    Gag-a latest pop-skank album not worth $0.01.
  - DRMSSDB
    
    Monday, May 23, 2011 - 1:55 pm · Reply
    
    Are you making a correlation between disliking Gaga and being stupid? I hardly think that one exists.
    
    “.. why comment on it trying to put down an artists music.”
    
    Typically, people comment in comments sections.
    - btaylor
      
      Monday, May 23, 2011 - 2:34 pm · Reply
      
      hey, hey, hey “correlation” is too big a word for shlock-pop, bad Madonna re-tred fans.
      - btaylor
        
        Monday, May 23, 2011 - 2:35 pm · Reply
        
        keep it dumbed-down…you know like today’s pop music:
        made by idiots for idiots.
- Backlash
  
  Monday, May 23, 2011 - 1:21 pm · Reply
  
  Agreed.
  They can’t pay me to listen to that crap.
  - Ballmer's left nut
    
    Monday, May 23, 2011 - 1:36 pm · Reply
    
    Lady Gaga is more than crap. Can you say she’s talentless, self promoting, costume wearing, gag inducing trash? Or would that be too good for her?
    
    PS. I listen to Britney Spears. Haha.
    - John
      
      Monday, May 23, 2011 - 1:46 pm · Reply
      
      They’ll have to pay me more than $0.99 to listen to the album. Oh, you mean you have to pay them!!!??
SamLowry

Monday, May 23, 2011 - 12:54 pm · Reply

is this how AMZN wants to quadruple its earnings in order to be worth their share prize one day?
N8nNC

Monday, May 23, 2011 - 12:57 pm · Reply

I think this helps Apple, by strengthening their position when negotiating price and conditions with the labels. I don’t bother going to Wal-Mart for a (slightly) lower price, when I can have a better shopping experience at Target.
- btaylor
  
  Monday, May 23, 2011 - 2:39 pm · Reply
  
  ooooh… good analogy!
- Pandora
  
  Monday, May 23, 2011 - 6:20 pm · Reply
  
  Hey, whatever floats your boat. Just don’t pronounce it “tar-zhay.”
TowerTone

Monday, May 23, 2011 - 12:58 pm · Reply

that’s about .97 too much
(just my 2 cents worth…)
dd

Monday, May 23, 2011 - 1:06 pm · Reply

so gaga might single handedly bankrupt amazon today.

this promotion smacks of desperation. this is not how to build loyal customers.
iQuack

Monday, May 23, 2011 - 1:06 pm · Reply

It’s in MP3 format so it’s inferior from the start. While I do like a small portion of her music, I think for this in MP3 format is not worth 99 cents. I just can not do MP3 format.
:-/
TheGweed

Monday, May 23, 2011 - 1:16 pm · Reply

No one cares.

Even at only 99¢ people want some value. Not getting it with this “deal”.
S

Monday, May 23, 2011 - 1:19 pm · Reply

lady gaga is a sphincter.
Paul

Monday, May 23, 2011 - 1:21 pm · Reply

Zomg! You mean if I ditch iTunes right now an all my music there I can has lady gaga album for 99 cents?! Later Apple. Amazon wins.

Nice try amazon, I wouldnt waste seconds of my life to steal that album let alone pay 99 cents and completely switch all my music. In case these companies haven’t figured it out, apple doesn’t appeal to it’s consumers by being bottom feeders and giving everything away. They value experience, polish, stability and convenience and are willing to pay for it. No giveaway of shitty music is gonna change that, spend that money on improving your services.
BoughtAAPL@$40

Monday, May 23, 2011 - 1:24 pm · Reply

Amazon servers must be getting overloaded. Purchased the album about 3 hours ago and so far only 3 songs downloaded. Amazon Downloader states “Cannot connect. Please contact customer service.” Relaunching doesn’t solve the issue, and it’s not related to connectivity on my side. I’ve never had a similar experience with any iTunes purchase.
- BoughtAAPL@$40
  
  Monday, May 23, 2011 - 2:15 pm · Reply
  
  Update: it has now been exactly 4 hours since making the purchase. In that 240 minute span Amazon has provided me with 5 songs and a digital booklet totaling less than 50mb of data. The remaining 9 tracks still have no progress bar whatsoever.
  
  Regardless of whether you’re a fan of GaGa or not, Amazon’s attempt at delivering an iTunes-like experience is falling short. This is VERY much like what other companies attempt to do when competing with Apple–deliver an inferior experience at a lower price. This is what builds reputations.
- BoughtAAPL@$40
  
  Monday, May 23, 2011 - 3:17 pm · Reply
  
  Update 2: Another 60 minutes transpired. Zero additional data transferred. Still at 5 songs and a digital booklet.
  
  As an AAPL shareholder, this is the type of competitive performance I love seeing. Go ahead Amazon… over promise and under deliver.
- BoughtAAPL@40
  
  Monday, May 23, 2011 - 5:10 pm · Reply
  
  Update 3: Closing-in on 7 hours since the original purchase, and sill missing 1/3 of the items. 9 songs and 1 digital booklet have completed, while 5 songs have not yet even started.
- goddess
  
  Monday, May 23, 2011 - 5:50 pm · Reply
  
  This has been an awful experience so far. I certainly won’t be a convert. From downloading the application to music it’s be one mess after another. I have about a tenth of a song after an hour.
- BoughtAAPL@$40
  
  Monday, May 23, 2011 - 6:54 pm · Reply
  
  Update 4: all files successfully downloaded. Final file completed at 6:46 pm, a full 8.5 hours after the purchase was made.
SamLowry

Monday, May 23, 2011 - 1:25 pm · Reply

I’d say, the music is HIGHLY compressible…
ed malloy

Monday, May 23, 2011 - 1:44 pm · Reply

Not sure, but aren’t you supposed to buy to the cloud and then download from the cloud.

Good deal, but it’s only one album
Tobias Tate

Monday, May 23, 2011 - 1:46 pm · Reply

BoughtAAPL:
exact same problem here!
we may be saving some $$$ but what we’ll take away is the horrible experience of trying to purchase downloadable music from Amazon.
auramac

Monday, May 23, 2011 - 1:55 pm · Reply

I have no problems with Amazon, but prefer iTunes. Attacking Gaga (who I too am not gaga over) misses the point, which is that Amazon is being competitive. I always root for Apple, however, and iTunes is a superior, easier experience overall, better laid-out, more informative, etc.
- BoughtAAPL@$40
  
  Monday, May 23, 2011 - 2:09 pm · Reply
  
  Agreed and well said. If Amazon has the same product as iTunes for less money, then what’s the point of buying through iTunes. Music is a commodity more or less. One vendor does not (typically) offer a unique offering over another vendor. There is very little to differentiate aside from price–and user experience. With this offer, Amazon wins on the former but loses on the latter.
  - Spark
    
    Monday, May 23, 2011 - 2:47 pm · Reply
    
    Yes, music is a commodity. The file quality and user experience is not. I’ve purchased a few songs on Amazon, but still use iTunes as the primary source. I just like the site and the way it works better.
GArIo

Monday, May 23, 2011 - 2:09 pm · Reply

I think that’s nice of Amazon to give a discount like that to all the 12 year olds who listen to her/him. Most of them don’t have too much money anyway.
Derek Currie

Monday, May 23, 2011 - 2:09 pm · Reply

What a great way to BUY market share Amazon! Sounds like you’ve been taking your cues from Microsoft! There’s just one problem: You have to keep paying for market share once you’ve achieved it, and that’s not good.
- eldernorm
  
  Monday, May 23, 2011 - 2:29 pm · Reply
  
  Totally agree. It does not matter if you like the artist or not (to each their own) Amazon comes off looking like a poor third in music downloads. I have the same problem as above, most of the music takes too long then crashes the downloader. So exactly why would I trust Amazon with my music if they cannot do a simple download well.???
  
  Just a thought,
  en
Predrag

Monday, May 23, 2011 - 2:45 pm · Reply

When iTunes Music Store opened 8 years ago, it went head-to-head with the original (and illegal) Napster. Steve’s argument was the people would rather pay $1 and get their song in 30 seconds, rather than sift through Napster’s search results in hope of getting a decently ripped pirated copy. He was right and iTMS took off.

Amazon is now offering precisely the kind of service that Napster had (without charging for it). For those without the awareness of moral impropriety of pirating music, it is difficult to justify spending money on Amazon if it takes as long (and longer) to get the tracks as it does via torrent sites.

Amazon will often try to make a run for the market share by occasionally offering these ‘loss-leaders’ (discounts). Labels may even line up behind such efforts with some additional sweet deals reserved for non-iTunes retailers, all in hope of reducing Apple’s powerful position. Unless any of these actually offers the QUALITY of service that can surpass Apple’s, the strategy will fail.
Take To Task

Monday, May 23, 2011 - 2:48 pm · Reply

Really does smack of desperation.
Paying any amount of $ for an MP3 files makes no sense to me. I’ll pay for AAC because at least the quality is better and has lossless options.

http://taketotask.wordpress.com/
MEM

Monday, May 23, 2011 - 3:18 pm · Reply

PAINFULLY SLOW downloading! iTunes and Apple have nothing, and I mean NOTHING to worry about!
KenC

Monday, May 23, 2011 - 3:21 pm · Reply

Bought it, transferred to my Amazon Cloud account, which then automatically downloads to my Mac. No problems.