Amazon to Open DRM-Free Music Store

[Harbourmaster]

Amazon.com plans to launch a digital music store later this year, featuring music downloads without copyright restrictions.

The e-commerce giant announced Wednesday that it would offer songs from more than 12,000 record labels in the MP3 format, without the controversial digital rights management (DRM) software. Record labels are beginning to warm up to the concept of offering music downloads without DRM, after waging war with peer-to-peer companies over distributing their copyrighted music and over piracy issues.

"Our MP3-only strategy means all the music that customers buy on Amazon is always DRM-free and plays on any device," Jeff Bezos, Amazon's chief executive, said in a statement.

Users will be able to play their music on virtually any device, including PCs, iPods, Zunes and Zens, as well as burn the songs on CDs for personal use.

In making the announcement, Amazon also noted it has teamed up with EMI Music to offer songs from its digital catalog. As part of its digital music store, Amazon will offer EMI's new, premium DRM-free downloads.

Amazon said it would announce pricing details closer to the launch date.

Linkie: http://news.com.com/Amazon+to+offer+DRM-...lr8yourmac

[vision63]

Good. Hopefully iTunes will follow suit.

[tahoedrew]

[quote vision63]Good. Hopefully iTunes will follow suit.
Ummm... Amazon is actually following in the footsteps of Apple here. Apple announced a deal with EMI to sell DRM-free 256kbps iTunes tracks for $1.29 about two months ago.

~A

[MGS_forgot_password]

There are 12,000 record labels?

[space-time]

[quote MGS_forgot_password]There are 12,000 record labels?
A "record" could be CD or the vilyn disk you put in your play-back device.

The "label" could be the bar code (UPC) attached to the record.

Therefore there are billions of record labels out there.

[deckeda]

So each individual copy is considered a separate "label?" What if there were only 12,000 copies of Mr. Roboto left? Is Amazon only selling Mr. Roboto?

[vision63]

[quote tahoedrew][quote vision63]Good. Hopefully iTunes will follow suit.
Ummm... Amazon is actually following in the footsteps of Apple here. Apple announced a deal with EMI to sell DRM-free 256kbps iTunes tracks for $1.29 about two months ago.

~A
Ummm...you're right. Now you owe me dinner. See how it works?

[chas_m]

Amazon won't be selling ANY drm-free tracks that iTunes is not ALREADY selling.

Non-story.