Amazon to add MP3 store to international sites
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Amazon.com will start selling MP3 music files through its international Web sites this year, the company said Sunday. But details of the company&#39;s plans to expand its&#160;digital music service&#160;remain scarce.
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MacCentral - Shortly before Apple's special music event on Tuesday featuring Bono and The Edge from U2, the iTunes Music Store was updated with links to allow residents of nine new countries to buy music online. In addition to the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Germany, iTunes now supports Austria, Belgium, Finland, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Portugal and Spain.
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Online superstore Amazon.com (Quote, Chart) has expanded its Web Services platform for developers, adding a new service for access to the Alexa database and increased access to the Amazon E-Commerce Service 4.0.
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Amazon.com has begun a new chapter in its battle for customers&#39; ears: it has agreed to pay $300 million for Audible, a seller of audio books that has a close relationship with Apple.Ten-year-old Audible sells spoken-word content such as audio books, magazines, and radio programs through a number of channels, including its Web sites in the U.S. and U.K. It has 80,000 titles in its catalog, and a further 20,000 through partner sites in France and Germany.Amazon began reselling Audible&#39;s content in 2000, and since 2002, Audible has also distributed audio books through Apple&#39;s iTunes Store, when it became Apple&#39;s exclusive supplier of spoken-word content. Apple modified the software in its iPods to allow &quot;bookmarking&quot; of Audible audio files.This chapter in the battle for listeners may yet have a happy ending for Apple, as the Audible team plans to continue and grow its relationship with the iTunes Store, according to Amazon spokesman Drew Herdener. But that goes for Audible&#39;s many other channel partnerships too: &quot;We plan to continue and grow all these relationships,&quot; Herdener said.Apple declined to comment on the deal.The main battle front between Apple and Amazon remains the sale of digital music free of the restrictions imposed by DRM (digital rights management) systems, where Amazon has been competing with Apple in the U.S. since September.When Apple opened its iTunes Store, the music it sold was wrapped in a layer of DRM to prevent copying, which incidentally tied the music to Apple&#39;s iPod players and iTunes software.Some record companies were unhappy that Apple limited the sales to its players in this way, and last May&#160;Apple began offering tracks from EMI without DRM&#160;for a small premium, later bringing the price down to the same $0.99 it charges for other tracks with DRM.&#160;Amazon joined the fray&#160;in September, selling music from EMI and Universal in MP3 format, without DRM,&#160;adding tracks from Warner to its catalog&#160;in December. It now offers 2.9 million DRM-free tracks, compared to 2 million DRM-free tracks in Apple&#39;s iTunes Store. Apple offers millions more tracks with DRM.Audible&#39;s audio books are wrapped in a layer of DRM, which Amazon does not plan to remove unless customers start to complain, Herdener said.&quot;Each media marketplace has its own business dynamics,&quot; he said.Amazon recently moved into the electronic book market with the launch of its Kindle e-reader, a device for downloading and displaying electronic books. Kindle also plays audio files, including those sold by Audible, making it a (much bulkier) competitor to the iPod.The $300 million price tag for Audible includes the assumption of outstanding stock option obligations. The companies expect to close the deal by April.
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Online retailer Amazon.com Inc. and DVD rental subscription company LOVEFiLM International said Monday that LOVEFiLM will acquire Amazon Europe's DVD rental business in the U.K. and Germany.
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Apple Computer (Nasdaq: AAPL) announced Tuesday the expansion of its well-received iTunes Music Store to nine additional European Union countries. The European version of the online store has been available in the UK, France and Germany since June.
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Amazon.com Inc launched an early  version of its highly anticipated digital music download store,  which is seen as a potential rival to Apple Inc&#39;s dominant  iTunes system.
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Amazon.com has launched a trial of Amazon MP3, its much-anticipated music download service.
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Amazon.com Inc  has  tentatively set a mid-September target for the launch of its  music service, the New York Post reported in its online edition  on Friday, citing sources familiar with the situation.
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Amazon.com Inc. launched a public beta version  of a digital music download store, which allows customers to  buy music without copy protection technology.
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The U.S. music industry is becoming more open-minded about working with online music stores from the tiniest start-up to Amazon.com, hoping to boost digital music sales and erode the dominance of Apple Inc's iTunes.
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Amazon.com has signed on Warner Music Group to its music download service, which aims to compete with Appleâs industry-dominating iTunes online store.
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Amazon MP3 is a digital music store in public beta that offers DRM-free music downloads, allowing users to download the music to their audio player of choice or burn songs onto CDs.
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The label has announced a deal that allows Amazon to sell DRM-free tracks through its online music store.
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Web retailer Amazon.com Inc. said Thursday it will buy online audio book seller Audible Inc. for $300 million in a bid to expand its reach in digital audio content.
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Online music store launches in nine more countries.
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SAN JOSE, CaliforniaâOctober 26, 2004âAppleÂ® today launched a European Union version of its revolutionary iTunesÂ® Music Store, giving music fans in Austria, Belgium, Finland, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal and Spain the same