From A to Z, Amazon to Get into the DAP and Music Store Biz

Bill Gates said Microsoft is working on bringing a better DAP to take on the iPod to a bunch of high school kids last week. Now just down the road there in the same state of gloomy weather Washington, Amazon’s Chief Executive Jeff Bezos says he’s talking to four global music companies and is not only going to do its own music store but also its own music player.

Some in the industry are saying on the hush-hush that they welcome Amazon to the download party and see it as a true competitor to Apple’s iTunes. If all goes well, Amazon customers could be adding songs to their baskets by this summer.

It’s not clear how the public will take to an online retailer making its own hardware player (though rumors have it Samsung will be subsidizing most of the hardware.) After number one PC maker, Dell Computers, dumped its high storage DAP last month, it will be interesting to see if Amazon can get the public to buy into a player from a book store.

The music store most likely will run to the tune of Napster and Real’s Rhapsody and be subscription based. While both of the latter almost make a million in subscribers, Amazon can boast of having a 55 million customer base to sale to. If only two percent bite, Amazon automatically becomes the second largest online music retailer. Watch out, Apple.

[Via WSJ]

[tags]dap,amazon,music,player,online[/tags]