I’ve long used iTunes to buy, organize, and listen to my music. But Amazon’s new MP3 Download Service is a great competitor. I’m going to start checking Amazon’s service first when I want new music, because for the same or less cost you get:

• Twice the bit rate as a regular iTunes download
• Unprotected MP3 files which you can do whatever you like with, rather than the limited-copy regular iTunes format

The catalog was broad enough that I could find some obscure tracks on Amazon that iTunes doesn’t offer, and most songs cost only 89 or 99 cents for the same quality and portability that costs $1.29 in the sparse iTunes plus format. Amazon’s free downloader even automatically plugs your new purchases into iTunes for you. Seems a winner thus far!