Amazon Increases Payout for Music Downloads

Thursday, October 18th, 2007 by Janet Meiners

Amazon Increases Payout for Music Downloads

Amazon.com is offering affiliates a higher payout on Amazon MP3 music downloads to compete with Apple’s iTunes. At Amazon they call affiliates associates and typically their payouts aren’t very high – around 6%. But to boost adoption of their music downloads they are offering 20% commissions until January 2008.

Compare that to Apple that offers 5% commissions on iTunes. They also priced the downloads slightly lower – some are 98 cents at Amazon while iTunes are at 99 cents. Beginning on January 1st, commissions will drop to 10%, still double that of iTunes.

Amazon has one of the earliest and largest affiliate programs on the internet. Now some of those affiliates have an incentive to promote music along with Amazon’s other offerings.

In response, iTunes recently dropped the prices on DRM-free tracks to 99 cents from $1.29. They are also adding more than two million DRM-free songs to the iTunes Plus service. Total inventory is about 5 million songs to Amazon’s 2 million.

Amazon’s downloads are all DRM-free. Affiliates and customers are winners here. As far as artists and record companies, it’s already an extremely competitive market.

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13 comments on “Amazon Increases Payout for Music Downloads”

Andy Beal Says:

October 18th, 2007 at 1:17 pm

Maybe we should extend Pilgrim’s Picks to include our favorite music downloads!
Steven Bradley Says:

October 18th, 2007 at 1:32 pm

It looks like Apple and Amazon have found a nice little battleground.
Boris Says:

October 18th, 2007 at 2:24 pm

What would we do if they ever decided to get into SEO?
Music Software Says:

October 19th, 2007 at 6:22 am

Viva la competition!
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October 19th, 2007 at 8:46 am

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Shaki Says:

November 28th, 2007 at 11:07 am

After all amazon is very usefull for internet marketers
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January 2nd, 2008 at 1:18 pm

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January 2nd, 2008 at 1:53 pm

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Notation Software Music Editor & Music Maker - Personal Composer Says:

September 26th, 2008 at 10:41 am

iTunes only pays 5% commission? I guess the reason it is so low is because each sale is only 99 cents. However, if Amazon can charge a penny less, and payout 5% more than iTunes, this would win me over for sure
PuReWebDev Says:

November 15th, 2008 at 8:42 pm

I’m happy that Amazon is offering drm free mp3s, the itunes store doesn’t have the same kind of selection, and I like the idea of being able to hear the song anywhere, not just my ipod.

PuReWebDev

PuReWebDev’s last blog post..Amazon Associates Show Off New Retail Trends
J. Rocker Says:

February 16th, 2009 at 9:50 pm

Very Interesting. I wonder if this will change Itunes current rate. But I still believe pirated music has the market on lock down.

J. Rocker’s last blog post..Beyonce Knowles on Marriage

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