Sony Announces DRM-Free Music at Amazon

sehlat brings us a New York Times report that Sony has agreed to start selling DRM-free music from Amazon's MP3 store. This comes days after Sony revealed plans for physical MusicPass cards that would allow DRM-free access to a small portion of Sony's library. Now that all four major record labels are on board with Amazon, some are expecting Apple to make moves away from DRM as well. From the NYTimes: "Sony's partnership with Amazon.com also underscores the music industry's gathering effort to nurture an online rival to Apple, which has sold more than three billion songs through its iTunes store. Most music purchased on iTunes can be played only on Apple devices, and Apple insists on selling all single tracks for 99 cents. Amazon, which sells tracks for anywhere from 89 cents to over a dollar, offers the pricing variability the labels want."

Comments

Apple already did with EMI - They were first!

[galimore]

*sigh*

Apple already moved away from DRM with EMI and "iTunes Plus" tracks. They were the first online music reseller to do so.

Re:Go fuck yourselves

[Angostura]

Why thank you. I just hope that the BBC opens up the iPlayer to you guys in a reasonable manner. Of course, it is a truth that the U.S provides much of the best items of British television too. I expect we see just the best of what you have to offer, in the same way that you only get our best bits.

It's fashionable to bash the U.S at the moment, largely due to some of the ... questionable... policies of the current administration. But let's face it the U.S is still a scientific and cultural powerhouse.

Have fun in GMT +1 land next week - if you really want to get up that early, that's fine with me.

Re:Free market

[rastoboy29]

Wake me up when mp3's are 4 cents a song.  Then that'll be a value proposition I can go for.

After all, then I'll just pay 4 cents every time I want to hear a song, which is an appropriate payment for the small service they provide me.  Why does anybody want to keep this stuff on their hard drive?  It's just another thing to back up.

Hell, I own every Led Zeppelin studio album.  But when I want to hear a song of theirs, I just download their whole catalog off a single torrent, listen to what I want to hear, then delete the whole thing again to save disk space.  No biggie.

I'll pay you 4 cents to keep the right tracks in a constant volume and perfect availability for me.  That's the value you provide...and nothing else.

I daresay those fuckers will end up making much more this way, however.  Not that the stupid sons of bitches deserve it.