My Latest Addiction: Amazon.com MP3 Downloads

It's all over for me, now. I have "discovered" Amazon.com's MP3 download store, and found a way to satisfy my music jones even faster than before. Now there's no waiting two to four days for a CD to arrive. I can now have my new music in about one hour. Let's summarize:

1. There is no complaint about the quality. They claim their MP3s have an average bitrate of 256K (as compared to the bitrate of 128K or 112K that most people have). I have been encoding at 192K for every CD I purchase, so it's clear that 256K is better. And this is borne out in the listening, as well.
   
2. There is no DRM on these tracks, either. This is quite satisfactory for me, as well. I can copy them to wherever I want, so I can listen to them anytime I want.
   
3. Amazon uses their own downloader. While it isn't blindingly fast, it does work.
4. Most full album prices are $8.99. This represents a discount off the price of the physical media that can be anywhere from about a dollar up to about $10.
   

All in all, I can recommend this as a way to buy your music, as long as you are prudent and save your purchases off to a CD or other durable backup medium--just in case, you know, your hard drive crashes and burns.