Explorations

Suddenly, I’ve begun to appreciate the genius of Amazon’s digital media strategy. With a Kindle, a TiVo set up for Amazon Unbox videos, and a sizeable MP3 downloading habit, I’ve used pretty much all their download services. And today I just realized that I have a central media library, where all the books, movies, television shows, and music I’ve purchased are stored. If I lose anything, I can re-download from their central server (unlike iTunes, which made me buy again). I can retrieve them through the device, or push them from Amazon.

The convenience of the thing is already a big selling point over places like Netflix (though with the selection still somewhat skimpy, I’m holding onto the subscription). The lack of DRM is a big advantage over iTunes. But the central storage is a killer app. It doesn’t cost Amazon much–they only need one copy on their servers–but it saves me a hell of a lot of room and annoyance in arranging backups. And being able to browse your whole library in one place–as well as share it with others–is pretty damn useful. — Megan McArdle