The Small Wave.

Much has been made of the “news” that Amazon’s MP3 store is now the #2 online retailer in digital music. You can absorb some various thoughts on this in these articles:

• USA today’s original article, citing no other data than the “Big 4″ labels’ word for it.
• MacDailyNews’ take on the above article, particularly its lack of any hard data.
• The CEO of eMusic calling BS on the USA today article, and claiming that eMusic is #2

And then of course there are the myriad re-hashes of the USA Today article syndicated in papers everywhere, as well as other articles parroting the story as if iTunes is somehow being threatened.

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I have to admit I was intrigued by the idea of the Kindle, and awaited details anxiously. Now that the details are well known, it’s hard for me to look on the device with any enthusiasm.

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Amazon opened their MP3 store today, and it’s clear iTunes has legitimate competition since Amazon avoids the pitfalls that made other music sites a joke. However, through it all some curious questions arise, which I’ll get to below. Meanwhile, here’s why this new site is a valid alternative to iTunes:

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Amazon recently announced they will begin selling DRM-free music later this year. They have hooked up with EMI, who also inked a deal with Apple’s iTunes.

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