News

Amazon to Launch DRM-free Music Service

Wednesday, May 16th, 2007 at 10:55 AM - by

Amazon plans to take on Apple's iTunes Store when it launches its own music download service later this year. To help entice customers, Amazon's music store will offer tracks in the MP3 format and without any copy protection. The company also said that customers will be able to burn purchased songs to CD.

Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com CEO, commented "Our MP3-only strategy means all the music that customers buy on Amazon is always DRM-free and plays on any device."

Amazon isn't starting small with its music service. The online retailer plans to offer "millions of songs" from over 12,000 record labels, and EMI is already on board.

By offering a large selection of music in the MP3 format, Amazon could create the perception that the songs it sells are compatible with more devices that the songs sold at the iTunes Store, which could over time draw customers away from Apple's popular music download service. But if Amazon sets up its music download service the same way it set up its Unbox video download service, Apple shouldn't have anything to worry about. Amazon Unbox is widely seen as difficult to use and unreliable.

Song pricing and an official service launch date have not yet been announced.

12 comments from the community.

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A guest said: (hide)

Wed May 16, 2007 11:53 am

"The company also said that customers will be able to burn purchased songs to CD."

Well duh if there's no DRM.

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geoduck said:

member since 30 Dec 2003 with 1917 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Wed May 16, 2007 11:57 am

Assuming that the price is right it just means more stuff to put on my iPod.

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dhp said:

member since 22 May 2003 with 181 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Wed May 16, 2007 12:20 pm

"By offering a large selection of music in the MP3 format, Amazon could create the perception that the songs it sells are compatible with more devices that the songs sold at the iTunes Store"

Perception? They in fact *would* be compatible with more devices, right?

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A guest said: (hide)

Wed May 16, 2007 12:35 pm

dhp wrote:
"By offering a large selection of music in the MP3 format, Amazon could create the perception that the songs it sells are compatible with more devices that the songs sold at the iTunes Store"

Perception? They in fact *would* be compatible with more devices, right?

Absolutely. AAC doesn't work on a lot of devices. MP3 is the most widely supported format, so much so that many people call DAPs (Digital Audio Players) MP3 Players. That's actually why Apple would rather battle with the labels than license it's DRM scheme. People with a large iTunes collection of purchased music will need to buy a device that supports AAC after their iPod dies, which usually means another iPod. I'd be interested to see if Apple will give people free downloads of DRM free songs for tracks they have previously purchased that are crippled by DRM.

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A guest said: (hide)

Wed May 16, 2007 1:16 pm

I think it's all good. As DRM-free becomes ubiquitous, the novelty aspect of a download store will evaporate. It will be more akin to being able to buy CDs anywhere. In the long run, this bodes well for the evolution of the market.

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A guest said: (hide)

Wed May 16, 2007 1:43 pm

I wonder if these will be low-quality mp3s.

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Engine Joe said:

member since 29 Jun 2004 with 413 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Wed May 16, 2007 2:24 pm

"I'd be interested to see if Apple will give people free downloads of DRM free songs for tracks they have previously purchased that are crippled by DRM."

Well they'll sell you 256kbps DRM-free AAC files for $0.30 IF you've already bought 128kbps DRM-laden AAC files. I've heard of no plan to give you (for free) 128kbps DRM-free AAC files to replace 128kbps DRM'ed files.

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Biff said:

member since 08 Apr 2004 with 1479 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Wed May 16, 2007 3:09 pm

Guest wrote:
MP3 is the most widely supported format, so much so that many people call DAPs (Digital Audio Players) MP3 Players.
LOL. You have got to be kidding me. I'm trying to figure out which is funnier: the fact that you seem to think your comment is somehow insightful (as opposed to blatantly obvious), or your use of "DAP" as if it (as opposed to the countless other acronyms for the same devices) is some de-facto standard used by only the most skilled techno-elite.

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A guest said: (hide)

Wed May 16, 2007 5:28 pm

Biff, please read the thread before you jump on some need to personally attack someone. I'm not sure why you feel the need to try to belittle someone you don't even know on the internet (a sign of deep personal issues to me for which I'm not qualified to diagnose), but if you bothered to actually read the thread you'd see that someone had asked that specific question. So while to you it might be "blatantly obvious" to others on this board it is not. DAP is a common term used to described players whose primary purpose is play digital audio files. While a lot of people might call their non-Apple device an "iPod", it is still only a brand name such as Kleenex or Q-Tip, and the common names are tissue and cotton swab. DAP is a acceptable term for generality (there are even sites that incorporate it into their names, dapreview.net), but if you have some other term that appeases your elitest psyche we can use that instead.

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dhp said:

member since 22 May 2003 with 181 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Wed May 16, 2007 7:12 pm

Actually my comment was a rhetorical question meant to point out the absurdity of iPO suggesting that the Amazon downloads would only be perceived as more compatible, when they obviously will be more compatible. I'm not sure how that implies I've never heard of an mp3 player.

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Mikuro said:

member since 15 Jun 2002 with 457 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Thu May 17, 2007 12:30 am

Guest wrote:
Absolutely. AAC doesn't work on a lot of devices. MP3 is the most widely supported format, so much so that many people call DAPs (Digital Audio Players) MP3 Players. That's actually why Apple would rather battle with the labels than license it's DRM scheme. People with a large iTunes collection of purchased music will need to buy a device that supports AAC after their iPod dies, which usually means another iPod. I'd be interested to see if Apple will give people free downloads of DRM free songs for tracks they have previously purchased that are crippled by DRM.

Don't confuse AAC with iTS downloads. It is not the fact that iTS downloads are AAC that makes them incompatible with other players. AAC is an open format, so any interested company could support it easily (and there are certainly non-iPod players that do). The problem is Apple's proprietary FairPlay DRM. iTS downloads are not normal AACs.

I agree the line about "perception" is a little odd. Even if the service is hard to use like Unbox, plain mp3s certainly will be more compatible.

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A guest said: (hide)

Fri May 18, 2007 5:45 pm

dhp wrote:
Actually my comment was a rhetorical question meant to point out the absurdity of iPO suggesting that the Amazon downloads would only be perceived as more compatible, when they obviously will be more compatible. I'm not sure how that implies I've never heard of an mp3 player.

Sorry, didn't realize it was rhetorical, and not sure how you read it as informing you that there was a new device that played MP3s, rather, just answering the question about the ubiquity of MP3s. Regardless, Biff clearly has issues if he felt the need to post what he did.

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