Sony BMG signs onto Amazon's DRM-free music store
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Amazon MP3, which only sells music without digital rights management copy protection, now has licensing deals with all four major music labels. Watch out, iTunes.
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Amazon.com has added songs from Warner Music Group to the range it sells as MP3 files without DRM (digital rights management), the companies said Friday.The online retailer&#160;launched its music download service&#160;in September and now offers 2.9 million songs without copy prevention technology, including tracks from Warner, EMI, Universal, and 33,000 independent record labels -- although it has still not won over Sony BMG, the only one of the music majors still insisting on the use of DRM.Warner said it also planned to offer album bundles including exclusive tracks through the Amazon service.The move is a blow to Apple&#39;s iTunes Store, which has only persuaded EMI and a handful of independent labels to let it offer their tracks in the&#160;DRM-free iTunes Plus format it launched in May. The rest of the songs available through iTunes come with digital limitations on where they can be played, or how many times they can be burned to a CD.Three formats dominate the market for online music sales: MP3 and AAC, which are both open formats, and WMA, a proprietary format owned by Microsoft.MP3 files do not include provision for DRM: music recorded in that format will play on most digital music players, many mobile phones, and in software readily available for all the major operating systems, including Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux, opening up a huge potential market to Amazon and to other online music stores such as eMusic dealing in unprotected MP3 files.AAC is the format Apple chose for its iTunes Store. Most of the 6 million tracks in its catalog come wrapped in a proprietary DRM layer called FairPlay, although EMI and independents such as Sub Pop, Nettwerk, IODA and The Orchard also allow it to offer higher quality AAC recordings without DRM. The DRM-encumbered tracks will play on authorized iPods, iPhones, PCs, and Macs -- but won&#39;t play on digital music players from other vendors. Unprotected AAC files will also play on many mobile phones, PCs running Linux with the appropriate software, and even Microsoft&#39;s Zune digital music player.WMA files without DRM will play on PC or Macs using Windows Media Player, and some phones and digital music players -- although typically not on the same ones that play AAC files. Microsoft has also introduced a range of DRM systems enabling online stores to sell locked WMA files -- and later abandoned some of them, leaving a certain amount of confusion and doubt about whether devices and songs branded &quot;PlaysForSure&quot; really will play for sure.Industry executives expect initiatives such as iTunes Plus and Amazon MP3, which remove the DRM locks placed on music downloads by an earlier generation of music services, will encourage consumers to buy more music.Warner believes that giving consumers the assurance that the music they purchase can be played on any device they own will only encourage more sales of music, it said Friday.It may also persuade music-buyers to look at other brands of digital music player such as the Zune range from Microsoft, ending Apple&#39;s dominance of that market segment.With the locks off the music, Apple also faces the prospect of a price war with Amazon, which offers 1 million of its MP3 tracks for just $0.89, compared to the $0.99 Apple charges for all its tracks. Before the launch of Amazon MP3, Apple also charged a $0.30 premium for tracks in the iTunes Plus format, which is recorded at a higher quality than the DRM-encumbered versions. Other Amazon tracks sell for $0.99.
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Online retailer Amazon.com Inc. has  signed on Warner Music Group to its music download service,  which aims to compete with Apple Inc.'s industry-dominating  iTunes online store.
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Not in the UK, still more expensive. Whodathunkit? Apple has responded to the launch of Amazon's DRM-free music download store with a price cut to its own iTunes Plus.â¦
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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 to CDs.
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Retailer Play.com is planning to open its own digital music store which will sell DRM-free tracks for between 65 and 70 pence.
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Online retailer Amazon.com Inc   said on Sunday it will begin an international roll-out  this year of its digital music store that offers songs without  copy-protection technology known as digital rights management.
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Yahoo is reportedly in talks with major labels about a DRM-free music store. to offer them either for sale or for free in an ad-supported model.
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DRM-free service to roll out this year Presenting possibly the biggest threat to the dominance of iTunes so far, Amazon.com has announced it will commence an international roll-out of Amazon MP3, it's DRM-free digital music store, this year.â¦
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The world's largest music company will sell restriction-free music downloads at Amazon.com and other online vendors. But not at Apple's iTunes store.
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Recording-industry giants EMI and Sony BMG announced an umbrella agreement Monday to address digital rights management (DRM) issues for music on mobile phones, PCs and digital cable systems.
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With digital rights management on music purchases now the norm, record labels have turned to a unique, if not ironic, approach to gain added promotion: DRM-free tracks. Hollywood Records has teamed up with Yahoo to do just that, selling a special MP3 version of Jesse McCartney's new album Right Where You Want Me.
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TOKYO -- Sony BMG will start selling music downloads in the copy-protection-free MP3 format later this month in North America, as even the last holdout among the major record labels crumbled to the growing trend.
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At least one online music service without digital rights management restrictions is launching.
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Warner Music Group becomes the latest big studio to sell DRM-free tunes through Amazon.com.
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(InfoWorld) - Apple has taken another step toward selling DRM-free tracks from EMI and other labels through its new iTunes Plus service. The company released an update to iTunes (version 7.2) Wednesday that introduced support for new DRM-free music sales, a move first promised by Apple CEO Steve Jobs and EMI CEO Eric Nicoli in early April 2007. "With iTunes 7.2, preview and purchase iTunes Plus music -- new, higher-quality, DRM-free music downloads from participating music labels," Apple urges in notes accompanying the software. The company explains, "The first time you buy an iTunes Plus song, you specify whether to make all future purchases iTunes Plus versions (when available). You can change this setting by accessing your account information on the iTunes Store." However, it's not yet clear where users can find the new DRM-free songs within iTunes. When it comes to introducing new DRM-free music, Nicoli said in April, "Our goal is to give consumers the best possible digital music experience. By providing DRM-free downloads, we aim to address the lack of interoperability that is frustrating for many music fans. The updated iTunes is available for Mac and for Windows systems. A 29.6MB download, it is available through Software Update or for direct download from Apple's support website.
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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.