Thirty second impression of Amazons new MP3 service – Average. Pros: It’s (allegedly) all DRM free. Halleluljah for that – even though everyone is hopefully already moving rapidly in that direction, it is nice to see a site that is totally DRM free AND has a large collection of music. Cons: The interface is okay…but it just ain’t no iTunes. Or even close to iTunes. Let’s face it, a large majority of iTunes success is because of its interface and its rich content. Example: Look at an album on iTunes, you can see all of the tracks and which ones are most popular. Brillant for someone like me that may be introduced to a new artist and want to hear what other people feel is the strongest tracks before I listen to the entire album. Maybe Amazon will eventually offer a more thorough experience, but for now – it’s fair to middlin, as they say.

Wanna really win me over, besides fixing the interface? Make the quality of the music available in a range from, say, average mp3 all the way up to audiophile lossless versions. Let me decide if I want to take up the extra space on my iPod for certain tracks.

Check out their site for yourself at www.amazon.com. They’re referring to it as a public beta, so consider it what you will.

R.