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All posts tagged "Amazon"


Monday, December 8, 2008

Amazon Offers 25 Days of Free Christmas Music

Posted by Chris Gohlke in "Digital Home News" @ 04:00 PM

http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.ht..._rd_i=163856011

"Every day through December 25, we're unveiling a new holiday song available to download free for a limited time. Check back daily to see what's next."

Tis the season, to pick up some free holiday themed MP3's. You can pick them us as you go or you can probably just pop in nearer to the 25th and grabl them all at once. My fingers are crossed for some Trans-Siberian Orchestra before the offer is over.

Tags: Amazon, Free, MP3

Monday, November 3, 2008

Amazon Frustration-Free Packaging

Posted by Chris Gohlke in "Digital Home Hardware & Accessories" @ 06:00 PM

http://www.amazon.com/

"Dear Customers, Wrap rage describes the frustration we humans feel when trying to free a product from a nearly impenetrable package. Some products are hermetically sealed inside plastic clamshell cases, while others (especially toys) use plastic-coated steel-wire ties. Without the right tools, wire ties can be painful and time-consuming to untwist. Today, we're excited to announce the beginning of a multi-year initiative designed to alleviate wrap rage Amazon Frustration-Free Packaging."

Great idea and it seems like a win for all sides. Clamshell packaging evolved as a way to deter shoplifing in the retail environment. Since this is not a problem for Amazon, they are able to cut out the extra cost and waste associated with this packaging. The packaging still seems a bit large for the size of the product, but at least most of it is easily recyclable. Hopefully the cost savings in packaging will offset the cost of having two different types of packaging and more companies will jump on board.

UPDATE: Upon futher reading, my comment about the packaging seeming a bit large is a bit off-base. Apparently, the package is also the shipping box, so no more box in a box.


Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Want to Order the New Zunes? Zune 120 and Zune 16 Now on Sale at Amazon.com

Posted by Jason Dunn in "Zune Hardware" @ 01:09 AM

http://astore.amazon.com/zunethough...5712529-9428741

That gorgeous black Zune is the new Zune 120, featuring, yup, 120 GB of storage. Amazon.com has them on sale now for $249 USD, and if you order through our affiliate store, you'll be helping Zune Thoughts out. Thanks! [Affiliate] You can also order the new Zune 16 GB model, and the new Zune 8 in blue.


Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Loving the Amazon MP3...

Posted by Chris Gohlke in "Digital Home Talk" @ 07:00 AM

For me, Amazon's MP3 store represented a chance to finally get into purchasing MP3's. Prior to this, a majority of my collection came from ripped CD's, but over say the last 5 years, I've hardly purchased any CD's because frankly there was not much out there that I liked well enough to buy an entire CD. When Amazon's store first opened, I purchased a couple of tracks just to try it out and then kind of put it on the back burner. Well in the last few weeks, I've rediscovered their store and wanted to pass on some of the great deals that they run. First off, as you know their tracks DRM free, and run mostly around $0.99 each (with some of the more popular songs at $0.89). I find myself just buying tracks of songs I like from the radio without giving the price a second thought. Of course that is old news for those of you that have been buying from iTunes for years. What I'm really liking is that Amazon runs daily specials on entire albums for really cheap prices. For example a few days back I picked up Beck's “Odelay” for $3.99 and today I picked up “The Best of John Mellencamp: 20th Century Masters” for just $1.99. Additionally, on Friday's they offer 5 albums for $5 each. Sure, they might be taking a loss on some of these, but they are getting me in the habit of checking in daily to see what they have to offer, and of course as long as I'm there, I may end up picking up a song or too. Overall, I'm not sure if I should be happy or sad that Amazon has come up with yet another way to separate me from my money, but you live in a territory that offers it, be sure to give Amazon's MP3 store a second look.

Tags: Amazon, MP3

Friday, May 9, 2008

iTunes - Pay More Get Less

Posted by Chris Gohlke in "Digital Home Articles & Resources" @ 09:00 PM

http://weblog.raganwald.com/2008/05...han-amazon.html

"For example, Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988 on 256-bit DRM-free MP3 is just $9.99 from Amazon. The same album is also $9.99 from Apple, but you get DRM. And there are tons of tracks on Amazon that are actually less expensive than on iTMS, so you get better music for less money without the DRM hassle. So is Apple screwing the customers? In a word, no. The reason you can find more music on Amazon at a lower price is that the Record Labels want it that way. Do you think they charge Apple and Amazon the same price for each track and Apple simply charges you more and pockets the difference as a higher markup? The labels would like you to think that, but they actually charge Amazon less for each track, and that’s how Amazon can charge you less."

There is some interesting logic to this article. There were no references, so I have no idea if the labels actually sell to Amazon for less than Apple. I certainly follow that the record companies want Amazon in the game to keep Apple in check. However, I disagree that this will let the record labels take back control AND allow them to keep DRM. I think at this point they have to choose either/or. If they want to keep DRM in place, then they are stuck with Apple calling the shots. If they are willing to go DRM free, then competition can at least keep Apple in check .

Tags: Apple, Amazon, MP3

Thursday, October 12, 2006

Small Site Updates

Posted by Jason Dunn in "Zune Thoughts Site Updates" @ 08:37 PM

We're still polishing the site after our quick launch (it was three weeks from domain registration of Zune Thoughts to our beta launch), so things are slowly being added. This week I added a new SHOP link which takes you to our Amazon.com affiliate store. Amazon has a new "site builder" that while simple, is pretty cool - you can whip up a site on anything pretty quickly. If you're planning on buying a Zune, we'd appreciate your support by ordering it through Amazon. Thanks! Next up, I tweaked the sidebar a bit - we've linked to all of the Zune-employee blogs, and will start to link to other Zune sites soon. Later this month we'll be developing front page modules to link into the forum content, so you'll have the last ten posts from the forums, top stories, and more. Stick around!

Tags: updates, Amazon

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