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DRM-less Amazon MP3 store now complete with Sony BMG

By Ed Oswald, BetaNews

January 10, 2008, 5:40 PM

With the last remaining label of the big four to join the online retailer's new music store, it could be argued that DRM is essentially dead.

Last week, Sony announced its plans to go DRM-free. It did not name any distribution points at the time, although analysts speculated that Amazon would eventually carry Sony's content.

Prior to Sony, Warner was the most recent to join the service last month, with EMI and Universal joining earlier last year. Users will need to by a plastic stored value card in order to purchase music at select retailers.

All together, about 200,000 DRM-free tracks from Sony will be uploaded to Amazon MP3, meaning the total number of tracks on the service will reach 3.25 million. This is far more than iTunes, which only has about two million tracks.

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By Maymne

posted Jan 11, 2008 - 12:39 PM

Maybe just me, but I think this is likely typoed...

quote:
Users will need to by a plastic stored value card in order to purchase music at select retailers.

Need to by? Not need to buy?

Score: 0

By bobthegoat2001

edited Jan 11, 2008 - 2:03 AM

I thought about buying some of their MP3's, but I think I still like CD's better. I can have whatever bitrate I want like 128kbit/s for my 8gb Cowon D2 or the Alt Standard preset for my 60gb iAudio X5. Also if I decide to use Ogg, AAC or a different format later on down the road I can still do that too with the CD.

Score: 0

By naylor83

posted Jan 11, 2008 - 12:53 AM

Now all we need is for them to let us shop from outside the US.

Score: 0

By Paul Skinner

posted Jan 11, 2008 - 4:49 AM

^This^

Score: 0

By Carlospr

posted Jan 10, 2008 - 6:56 PM

From Amazon.com: "Amazon MP3 is currently only available to US customers"

That's sad for those who'd like to legally purchase and download affordable music.

Anyway, the Amazon catalog is even more impressive.

Score: 0

By lvthunder

posted Jan 10, 2008 - 6:22 PM

I hate all these games the studios play with us. I think they should offer DRM free tracks everywhere (including iTunes). It seems anti-competitive that these music companies won't go DRM free with iTunes. Let me decide which store I want to buy DRM free from. Then you have the movie studios doing the same thing with the HD formats. If I owned one of these studios I would sell my stuff on every format (that made a profit) with every company. Let the customer pick if they want iTunes or Amazon or that music store in the mall. Let them choose if they want an AAC, MP3, or CD.

Score: 0

By bobthegoat2001

posted Jan 11, 2008 - 1:56 AM

Well, if you want DRM free AAC, you could just buy the CD. Amazon does also sell used CD's for cheaper than the normal price, sometimes as cheap as $0.01! It depends though how much in demand the CD is. The only draw back is you have to wait a few days for your CD to arrive (which is fine with me).

Score: 0

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