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The lack of iTunes+ songs in addition to Amazon's somewhat more flexible pricing (sometimes cheaper, almost never more expensive) hurts. Unfortunately, so too does the AmazonMP3.com buying experience.

I recently checked out a few songs from American Top 40 ((Yeah yeah, I don't have time to listen to the radio and just want a few new diversion songs. I still follow the bands I grew up liking. The ones that are still together, anyway. My time for "new musical interests" has passed.)) and built a chart comparing the two services. Of the songs I wanted that were available, it shook out like this:

iTunes     Amazon
------     ------
.99         .89
.99         .99
.99         .99
.99         .99
.99         .89
.99         .89
.99         .89
.99         .89
.99         .99
.99         .99
.99         .99
.99         .99
.99         .99
.99+        .89
.99         .99
.99         .89
.99         .89
.99         .99
.99+        .89
------     ------
$18.81     $17.91

One song was offered on iTunes ($0.99) that wasn't available on Amazon, and John Mayer's entire "Continuum" album ($12.99 on iTunes) wasn't available at Amazon. So those two songs - and the two "iTunes Plus" songs - I bought at iTunes. The Rest? I saved nearly a dollar buying them from Amazon, tolerating the horrid user experience the whole way.

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