Like many others, if you purchased an iPod for your music, you’re probably guilty of relying on iTunes to power and control your content. It’s too easy to go to the iTunes Music Store and purchase the latest tracks and listen through your computer, speakers or regular iPod. This is fine, unless you own more than an average number of machines or, over time, migrate content to a new computer or upgrade your hard drive.

As iTunes Music Store tracks are primarily DRM wrapped, they are limited to 5 PCs. However, you need to remember to de-authorise iTunes every time you move your music. It’s too easy to forget. Luckily Apple are working hard to include more DRM-free tracks in the iTunes Music Store so it means you have complete control and authority over your purchased audio tracks and will not need to worry about have to de-authorise on one computer so you move across to another.

However, for the moment there is another big player in the market and that’s the new Amazon UK MP3 store which contains downloadable tracks that are all DRM-free.

Amazon have produced their own MP3 Downloader which enables you to intercept the music you purchase via their MP3 store and automatically move it across to iTunes, the Windows Media Player or other software you use to manage your digital audio. This means that your downloaded Amazon MP3 tracks appear in iTunes, and thus can be used on your iPod, without having to use the iTunes Music Store.

The download here is for the Windows version. You can download a Mac OS X or Linux version of the Amazon MP3 Music Downloader from their homepage.

Disclaimer: this is no advert or promotional review for Amazon. It’s written to point users to a possible alternative solution. With the inclusion of additional DRM-free audio in the iTunes Music Store, users have the option of two powerful audio stores and can make their own decision between using the excellent iTunes or their web browser to purchase music.