Sony has agreed to sell its songs DRM-free on the Amazon MP3 store, completing the set—now all four big record companies are on board. It's amazing how a little iTunes competitiveness will bring a bunch of executives together. [New York Times]
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iTunes is already DRM-free (well, part of it). It is called iTunes Plus and any music that is part of iTunes Plus has the + symbol next to the $0.99 price.
The problem is some of the big record labels have a rocky relationship with Apple, so they won't let Apple sell DRM-free tracks.
Universal supposedly was trying DRM-free on a trial basis with Amazon until January, which is now. So I suspect next week at Macworld there will be at least one new major label on iTunes Plus.
Great job, Sony! Now dump the crappy restrictions on your ebooks, then we'll talk.
This may sound like a win for consumers, but all it means is that without iTunes music companies are going to jack up the price of individual songs. Never forget - the music industry are not in the red, they are very profitable. This is just an expression of their greed.
@I Will Not Stop Feeding My Fat Baby: Apple has DRM free songs. Apple didnt choose DRM, it was forced on them but the music industry.
Now that the players are all in line, can we get them to sign bands that don't suck?
Wow, awesome news. I always preferred Amazon over iTunes anyway.
Wasn't it Sony's General Counsel who said that burning a CD -- purchased, owned, and in your possession -- for your own personal use in your own personal MP3 player was piracy?
If so, how are they reconciling these two disparate concepts? How can buying a CD and ripping to MP3 for personal use piracy, but buying the same tracks online for personal use not piracy?
I've started using the Amazon MP3 store this week. It's pretty good! Integrates nicely with the iTunes player. I'm wondering how long it will be before iTunes goes DRM-free.