I don’t buy music any more but if I did…

I remember when the iTunes Store was introduced a few years ago. I was like a kid in a candy store. Buy a song here, buy a song there. Heck, sometimes just buy the whole album. And in a few seconds, the digital music files were delivered to my computer all ready to play. Hook up an iPod and my purchased music collection followed me everywhere I went.

But the shine has worn off iTunes for me. Today, I rarely (if never) purchase anything from the iTunes Store. In fact, I don’t even use an iPod any more and I sold my iPhone over a year ago.

Don’t get me wrong. I didn’t stop listening to music. It’s just that services like Pandora and Spotify make it too easy to listen to music I enjoy without the hassle of purchasing it.

But I’m in the minority

That being said, I think I’m a bit in the minority with this position. Obviously Apple is still selling millions (or is it billions? I don’t feel like looking it up) on a pretty regular basis. They’re just not selling them to me.

Even if I were to go back to buying music, I wouldn’t buy my music from the iTunes Store (at least not right now). Rather I’d buy it from the Amazon MP3 Store. I don’t know how long it will last but right now Amazon’s prices are ridiculously competitive.

For example, right now Amazon is offering over 60,000 albums priced between $3.99 and $4.99. Those same albums would be at least triple (if not more) in the iTunes Store. And if using the iTunes player is still your thing, Amazon provides a free piece of software to import your Amazon MP3 downloads right into iTunes.

Proof in the pudding

Here’s some proof in the pudding for you. I randomly selected 3 albums on the Amazon MP3 Store and compared them to the same exact album in the iTunes Store. Here’s what I found:

Toby Keith 35 Biggest Hits by Toby Keith: $3.99 (Amazon MP3), $14.99 (iTunes Store)

Greatest Hits by Queen: $3.99 (Amazon MP3), $11.99 (iTunes Store)

The Hits by Billy Joel: $3.99 (Amazon MP3), $11.99 (iTunes Store)

So if you were to buy all three of these albums in the Amazon MP3 Store, your total investment would be $11.97. Your investment in the iTunes Store would be $38.97.

And if you’re thinking that only the “old” music is low-priced on the Amazon MP3 Store, you might want to check out their $7.99 Bestsellers list.

I rest my case.