Amazon continued its assault on Apple's music dominance on Thursday with the announcement that iPhone and iPod Touch users can now buy music directly through the company on their mobile devices.
The new Amazon MP3 store is not an app, but it has been specifically optimized for iOS, and marks the first time that purchasing music through Amazon is possible on Apple's small devices. By visiting the MP3 store through Safari (reports also indicate that accessing the site through Chrome works just as well), customers can sift through a library of 22 million songs. When purchased, the MP3s are automatically saved to the individual's Cloud Player and can then be either downloaded or played instantly via stream.
Just because songs are purchased through iOS doesn't mean they're only playable through it, either. Songs in the cloud can be accessed at any time via any number of devices, including iPad, Kindle Fire, Android phones/tablets, Roku, and any Web browser.
"Since the launch of the Amazon Cloud Player app for iPhone and iPod touch, a top request from customers has been the ability to buy music from Amazon right from their devices. For the first time ever, iOS users have a way do that - now they can access Amazon's huge catalog of music, features like personalized recommendations, deals like albums for $5, songs for$0.69, and they can buy their music once and use it everywhere," said Steve Boom, vice president of Amazon Music, in a press release.
Amazon recently announced another big initiative through its store with AutoRip. Any time someone buys an AutoRip-enabled CD, they will also receive the MP3 version of the album for free. The MP3s will be available for playback immediately after purchase, via the cloud-based AutoRip player.
Previously, Amazon denied users the ability to purchase content through apps like Kindle and Cloud Player because of Apple's rule that the company be granted 30 percent of all sales done through apps.
Features of the Amazon MP3 store on the mobile Web browser include:
- The Amazon MP3 mobile website for iPhone and iPod touches is built on HTML5, which means customers can make purchases directly from the Amazon MP3 mobile website at www.amazon.com/mp3 on their iPhones and iPod touches
- Selection of over 22 million songs and over two million albums at everyday low prices
- Access to everyday deals like $5 albums, $0.69 songs, and free songs from artists on the rise
- Individualized recommendations based on purchase history
- Immediate availability and seamless playback of purchases in the Amazon Cloud Player app
- Free storage of all Amazon MP3 purchases in Amazon Cloud Player
