Later today Sonos will announce that their home music devices will now support Microsoft DRM’d music. That means music from AOL Music Now, MTV Networks’ URGE, Napster, Wal-Mart, Yahoo! Music and the Zune Marketplace will all play on the Sonos devices. Users have been able to play music from Rhapsody since September – meaning that all major music services except iTunes are now supported to some degree.
Sonos users must upgrade to v 2.1 of the software, available here.
Apple still has such a stranglehold on the digital music industry that it’s unclear this will drive much additional usage. And while Sonos will play downloads from the music services, they will only play streaming music from Rhapsody subscribers. So if you are a Sonos user, you’re best bet is to make sure your downloaded music is in the MP3 format, or use the Rhapsody subscription service if that’s your cup of tea.
Things got a little simpler in the DRM world today, but it is our opinion that the days of being forced to buy protected music will soon be over. In the meantime, we do not recommend buying DRM’d downloads from any service. Either buy the CD and rip it, as Bill Gates recommends, or join one of the subscription services. We won’t talk about BitTorrent and AllofMP3 ’cause our lawyer told us to stop.
Our previous coverage of Sonos is here.