News

Sony Takes DRM-free Tunes to Amazon

Friday, January 11th, 2008 at 8:35 AM - by

Sony BMG joined the rest of the big four record labels to offer copy protection-free music through the Amazon MP3 download service on Thursday. The label plans to offer its entire library through the iTunes Store rival before the end of January, according to the New York Times.

Amazon can now boast that it offers DRM-free music from all of the major record labels -- a claim that Apple's iTunes Store can't make. To date, only EMI offers songs without copy protection at the iTunes Store.

Sony's move to go with Amazon MP3 instead of the iTunes Store underscores the music industry's desire to break what the labels see as Apple's stronghold on the industry. The Cupertino-based company's online media store is seen as the market leader and offers standardized per-track song pricing.

The record labels have been pressuring Apple for some time to change from a flat price scheme to variable pricing so that they can charge more for popular songs. To date, Apple has strongly resisted the demand. Amazon, however, agreed and lets labels charge anywhere from US$0.89 to up over a dollar per track.

While Apple has stated that all of the record labels are welcome to offer copy protection-free music through the iTunes Store, EMI is the only company that is.

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vasic said:

member since 09 Aug 2005 with 255 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Fri Jan 11, 2008 10:44 am

This could potentially put a dent in iTunes store's popularity. Since the labels have a plausible excuse to go elsewhere (i.e. Amazon) and sell their DRM-free stuff, Apple has lost some leverage in negotiating with them. In fact, Apple's strongest leverage is its sheer market share in the downloads space and this will remain its only hope for getting all the labels back on its own terms. In a way, Apple's dominant position now depends a bit less on their own success, and a bit more on the success of Amazon's service. If people don't mind variable pricing, it will show in Amazon's gains in popularity. If this proves to be confusing (which is what Jobs has been claiming for almost 4 years), they'll flock back to iTunes, soon to be followed by the labels.

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A guest said: (hide)

Fri Jan 11, 2008 2:06 pm

Lets see. More than half of Amazon's offerings are 89 cents (Apple's DRM-free at $1.29). And the kool-aid drinkers have been telling us that only Steve's benevolence have been keeping the record companies from gouging us! iTunes is giving the songs away, right?, because Apple makes their money on the hardware. Bring on the competition (and thanks for using mp3!).

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Intruder said:

member since 07 Jul 2004 with 3012 posts, TMO Mac Specialist, send him a message or view his profile

Fri Jan 11, 2008 2:15 pm

Thanks for the FUD, guest.

iTS Plus songs are $.99, not $1.29. AAC 256 which most feel is better than MP3 256 (here come the arguments, I'm sure)

Thanks for playing.

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A guest said: (hide)

Fri Jan 11, 2008 5:27 pm

Man, how is this not collusion from the record labels? everyone knows they're trying to hurt the iTunes Store.... can they really do that without penalty in the US? is this legal?

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