Update: The Amie Street music service ceased on September 22, 2010 after being acquired by Amazon, Inc. Clicking on the website link above will redirect you to Amazon MP3 (read review for more information on this service).
Introduction
Amie Street is a unique music service that offers songs at variable prices. Rather than employing static prices for its music, it uses a dynamic pricing system that reflects how popular a song is - new songs normally start off free and increase in price as more people buy. It is therefore a music service that is driven by its users who determine the true value of a song. Artists also get a good return by receiving 70 percent of all profits.
Pros:
- Excellent pricing system
- Good resource for music discovery
- Easy-to-use website
Cons:
- Minimum of $3 with every credit card transaction
Service Features
Digital Music Delivery:
Amie Street operates an a la carte system where you can either pay-per-click, or to make it easier, you can pre-load your account with a set amount of credit ($3 - $75); this is a useful facility to use if you don't want the hassle of providing payment details every time you purchase a song.
Pricing Structure Dependent on Popularity:
- $0.00-0.98 for single tracks
- $0.00-8.98 for albums
Website Design and Content:
Amie Street's Website is well designed and provides an uncluttered, user-friendly interface. As far as content goes, the service essentially provides a music catalog of independent artists who have uploaded their creations, but there are also a few big names in their too. It hosts over 1 million music tracks that cover a wide spectrum of genres - there is also a small selection of audiobooks and guides too. You can browse through each genre using pre-set filters and also view tracks based on popularity, recently added, etc. There's also a search facility at the top of the screen which allows for easy keyword searches such as song, album, and artist.
Image - © Mark Harris - Licensed to About.com, Inc.
Previewing Songs and Albums:
You can preview songs on Amie Street by clicking on the play icon next to each track - typically music samples play for approximately 60 seconds, which is a lot more generous than the 30 seconds usually offered by most other services. All the previews are streamed to your computer and can be controlled via a browser-embedded player that has play/pause, previous/next track, and volume control buttons.
Purchasing Music:
Once you have decided to buy songs on Amie Street, you simply click on the Buy Song or Buy MP3 Album to start checking out. If you want to add music to a list before purchasing, then the Save For Later button is useful for adding your selections to a pseudo-shopping cart. Checkout is simple, but there is a downside if you have zero credit on your account. When using a credit/debit card or Paypal, you have to spend a minimum of $3 for every transaction; any remaining amount is credited to your account. According to Amie Street, this is due to fees that are imposed on them for every transaction. This is certainly a downside when compared to other pay-per-click music services who don't have this restriction.
Music Gift Cards:
An excellent feature of Amie Street is being able to purchase and redeem music gift cards. If you know someone who would love a gift in the form of music, then you can purchase an Amie Street gift card for $10, $15, $25, $50, $75, and $100. The recipient receives an e-mail complete with instructions on how to use their gift - you can also customize and preview your message before sending it.
Additional Features
Recommendations, Street Cred, and Rewards:
This is the bit of Amie Street that encourages members to be more proactive. By spreading the word and recommending your favorite music, you can earn money. The more RECs (short for recommend) you generate, the more money you can potentially make depending on how popular the songs become. Your Street Cred also increases which is a measure of how successful you have been in recommending music - all this earns you free downloads just by talking about your favorites to Amie Street's community and your friends (who you can invite to sign up).
Adding Your Favorites:
By adding your favorite artists, Amie Street can recommend new music that it thinks you'll like. You can either add these manually, or import from various sources, including Last.fm, Pandora, and even your iTunes library - a great time-saving feature that's worth using. Once you have populated your favorites, you can view recommendations - a great tool for music discovery.
Technical Details
Audio Formats:
Bitstream rate:
- 128 kbps minimum
Conclusion
Is it right for you?
As a rule, most music services tend to 'carpet bomb' the majority of their music with a fixed price, regardless of whether the songs are popular or not. Amie Street on the other hand offers a unique pricing structure that reacts to the popularity of the songs in its catalog; many songs start off free and increase in price (up to 98 cents) as they become more popular. This fairer system, which has got to be one of its strongest selling points, gives its members the ultimate power to determine the true value of the music they hear. Amie Street also offers artists a good return for their hard work by giving them a generous 70 percent of the profits. There's also an incentive for music fans to earn money too - in the form of RECs. By building up your RECs (short for recommend), you can earn money to use for more music downloads. Even though Amie Street's music catalog isn't particularly large when compared to other services, and is mainly made up of independent artists, the quality of the music is excellent and the service provides a good resource for music discovery. The only downside to purchasing music is that there's a minimum $3 transaction limit when using a credit/debit card or Paypal; other music services don't have this restriction. Overall, if you like the idea of a music service that has variable prices that are set by its users, and fancy earning a little money on the side by simply recommending your favorite songs, then you'll be hard pressed to find a better service than Amie Street on the Internet.
