Well the secret is finally out: Amazon has an MP3 music store. And the store totally rocks!
What a lot of people do no know is that for the past six months I have been working at Amazon on the MP3 music store. Amazon made a real effort to keep the MP3 store a secret so I never really told anyone or updated my LinkedIn bio. But now it is time to come out of the music closet.
My interview experience at Amazon was kind of amusing because they could (would) not tell me what the job was or what the product was. It's a "secret". I took a leap of faith and am pleased to say that I hit the hot tub not the rocks.
The music team is a very small one within Amazon and that has been terrific. It really has been like working at a (good) startup, which I totally enjoy. Not only is the team small enough that we all know each other well but everyone is a rockstar at what they do and the feeling of teamwork is palpable. My job has been in operations so I get to exercise my old process improvement muscles again, which has been a pleasant trip back to my TPS 1990's. Although the work load has been pretty intense, it turns out that I am pretty intense so it worked out. (If I never emailed you back - now you know why.)
When we finally did launch and the rave reviews (here & here & here) started to come in... It was a terrific feeling to see the payoff for our hard work. A lot of people work hard but few get to read about their products in the newspaper. After reading about other people's products for years, it felt really good to be reading about a product I contributed to. This is not the first product I have shipped by any means but it is by far the biggest one. Even though I was not in a development role this time, launch week was a good one.
It is also neat to be a part of history. Amazon MP3 is going to hasten the music industry onto a new place. As I have written before, the music monopoly is going to have to change or die and Amazon is a big part of that ecosystem.
This job has also allowed me to learn about the Amazon culture. I have been a happy Amazon customer for years but unlike our Seattle neighbors Microsoft and Real, I never knew much about Amazon's culture. We dont have a Mini or Extreme but there is definitely a strong culture here that warrants a few posts of its own in the future.
