Duke Listens!: Visit my main blog at MusicMachinery.com

The Amazon music store is soon to be unveiled - and soon afterwards we will all know whether it is going to be a serious competitor to iTunes.  Here's what Amazon needs to do  to compete:

• Work seamlessly with the iPod  - If I, (or more importantly, a non-digital-music guru), can't get the music from the Amazon store onto their nano or their shuffle, then the store is a non-starter.
• Broad and Deep Catalog - The Amazon bookstore is a poster child for the long tail - they better do the same for music.
• DRM-Free - Rumor is that Amazon is doing the right thing here ... no DRM for their tracks.
• Discovery and Recommendation - Amazon is well known for its recommendation and personalization technologies.  If they can make it as easy to find new music as they make it finding new books then Jeff may give Steve a run for his money.