Sony BMG signs onto Amazon's DRM-free music store
82270
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.
26431
(InfoWorld) - Yahoo put another music track without DRM (digital rights management) on sale through its Yahoo Music service Tuesday. The Norah Jones single "Thinking About You" sells for $0.99, in MP3 format on Yahoo's music store, and in DRM-encumbered AAC format on Apple Computer's iTunes Store. Both formats will play on PCs, Macs, and the market-leading iPod portable music player, but only the MP3 version will play on other portable music players. DRM technology is used to set limits on how, when, how many times, and on what devices a file may be played. While DRM can be applied to music in AAC, ATRAC, or WMA format, it cannot be introduced into MP3 files. Yahoo first experimented withÂ selling MP3 files without DRMÂ in July, when it offered Jessica Simpson's "A Public Affair" as an MP3 file for $1.99. While that track was not tied to a particular PC or music player with DRM, the audio track was personalized to contain a first name of the purchaser's choice, picked from a list of hundreds of prerecorded names, limiting its interest to other listeners. Since then, Yahoo has sold an entire album by the artist Jesse McCartney in both MP3 and the DRM-encumbered WMA (Windows Media Audio) format, but has not published sales figures for the two formats. Some see the release of tracks in MP3 format, without DRM, as a big gamble for record labels, as nothing prevents buyers from uploading them to file-sharing networks. In reality, DRM does little to stop such behavior, but makes life harder for legitimate music users, said analyst Mark Mulligan, a vice president at Jupiter Research in the U.K. "Most of the DRM in place is not going to stop piracy. You've got limits on CD-burning, but all of that is cracked immediately if you burn it onto CD and rip it back in again. Anyone with an ounce of tech-savvy is going to know how to get around that," he said. But the fact that there's nothing to stop listeners copying and sharing MP3 files could work to record labels' advantage, said Mulligan. "It's going to be implemented more as marketing than anything else," he said. Blue Note Records, the record label promoting the Jones track, is only releasing the single, not an entire album, in MP3 format for now. If Mulligan is right, it could be just a marketing gimmick to build awareness of the album, which will go on sale in January. Major record labels are starting toÂ look more seriously at MP3 distributionÂ because of the success of eMusic.com, which Mulligan says is the second-largest online music download store in the U.S., after that of Apple. EMusic sells music from independent record labels in MP3 format.
685331
DRM-free MP3s from music label to be sold on US website Warner Music Group is making its music available for download from Amazon in MP3 format without Digital Rights Management (DRM) copy protection, enabling the free sharing of music.â¦
350262
Amazon announces that it will add music from Sony BMG to its Amazon MP3 digital music download service.
528795
Amazon.com launched the public beta of its digital music store today with over 2 million DRM-free tracks available, though many artists are missing from the store's catalog.
142585
Amazon.com  has signed on  Warner Music Group  to its music download service, which  aims to compete with Apple's  industry-dominating  iTunes online store.
509869
Amazon.com plans to open an online music store offering only songs that are free of copy-protection technology and can be played on anything from PCs to portable gadgets such as Apple's iPod or Microsoft's Zune
125292
Despite recent acquisition, DRM-free music should launch in the iTunes store as planned.
14654
Meanwhile, take-over speculation mounts... EMI has signed a licensing and distribution agreement with Vidzone Digital Media to deliver the music giant's full DRM-free digital catalogue to mobiles and PCs via its cross-platform offering.â¦
260702
Apple made good on its promise to offer DRM-free tracks on Wednesday, launching iTunes Plus with AAC tracks from label EMI.
712361
Sony BMG Music Entertainment, the last major music label holding out against selling music online without copy protection, relented Thursday and announced Amazon.com Inc.'s digital music store will carry songs by its artists.
217525
Sony BMG announced that it would become the fourth and final major music label to sell digital music on Amazon.com.
222365
BusinessWeek.com reports that Sony BMG will offer some of its collection free of copy-protection software in coming weeks.
95279
Sony BMG Music Entertainment, the world's second largest music company, will this month become the last of the big four majors to drop copy protection software on music downloads, also known as digital rights management (DRM).
297334
Amazon said the deal makes it the only retailer to offer customer DRM-free songs in the MP3 format.
323116
The latest version of Hymn strips DRM protection from songs purchased from the iTunes 7 store, enabling playback on non-iPod gadgets.  In Listening Post.
135386
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¦