For anyone who was bummed about the hoops they were going to have to jump through to get DRM-free songs from Sony-BMG artists, by the end of the month you will be able to download those songs at Amazon’s MP3 store. A couple days after announcing a weird plan with physical retailers to distribute DRM-free music that will require people to buy a plastic stored value card first and then download it afterwards , Amazon looks to be the first online music distributor to strike a deal with Sony-BMG. It will also be the first online music store to offer DRM-free songs from all four major labels, having previously struck deals with Warner, EMI, and Universal Music.
Sony has uploaded around 200,000 tracks to Amazon, which constitutes their entire “active” catalog (the stuff that actually sells). Our understanding is that their entire catalog will be uploaded over time.
We expect Steve Jobs to announce the addition of Sony-BMG music without DRM to iTunes at MacWorld next week. But for now, Amazon has them all to themselves. Amazon now has 3.25 million DRM-free tracks in their library, compared to just 2 million at iTunes. ITunes has a far larger DRM catalog, but, really, do those tracks even count any more?
Do DRM tracks count any more?
Oh, only if you actually want to find what you want to listen to quickly and easily.
I love how Amazon is getting the credit from the moves that Apple and Jobs have made in pushing for DRM-free music.
MGZ
MGZ – exactly how many DRM’d songs have you actually purchased? Right, exactly zero.
I just noticed this comment in a backlink.
Let me check in iTunes… just a sec…
I have over 1250 songs purchased from iTunes. Most were purchased as complete albums or even complete box sets.
What was your point?
Anyway, they’re now (almost) all upgraded to iTunes Plus. Can’t wait until the end of the quarter for the rest.
Yes, but when are they going to launch AmazonMP3 outside the USA?
wonder if that will affect Amazon’s share price.
MGZ – I love how you think that Jobs and Apple were the one’s that made headway in pushing the labels to go DRM-free. Job’s manifesto was reactionary to other players in the market who had already convinced some labels to make the move.
Congrats to AmazonMP3, this just means that I’ll use thier service more.
Well… since I’m responding to year-old comments…
Yes, Apple was the one that made the headway here, because he was the one wielding the 800 lb gorilla – iTMS. A lot of people believe(d) that iTunes was Apple’s way of locking people into iPods, and they’d never dump DRM.
Jobs wrote this letter and basically said, “What the fuck do you know?”
>Apple and Jobs have made in pushing for DRM-free music.
I love it that Jobs “me too” letter gets the credit when it was drop dead obvious that the other players and the only smart people left at the labels were headed that way.
Emusic has been been DRM from the start – any word on whether they will be adding majors?
Hopefully Amazon’s reporting will be better than what itunes currently offers affiliates.
I really don’t think credit matters here. Apple sycophants (and I’m not saying all Apple fans are sycophants) will think Apple is responsible for this no matter what. For Amazon’s part they are a corporation that doesn’t care if you give them credit as long as you give them your money. Bottom Line: It doesn’t matter.
What does matter is that I spent about $50 a month on digital music last year and most of it was with iTunes. But since Amazon started selling MP3s they’ve gotten almost all my business (with th exception of a few tracks I just couldn’t find on Amazon). Moreover, I was specifically trying to spend less on iTunes and just order CDs because of the DRM but now that isn’t a concern. Plus, the integration with the iTunes software makes Amazon’s service just about perfect.
I honestly think Amazon might be building its own little halo effect around digital media right now. I’m even tempted to give Unbox another chance and that was an utter disaster last time I tried it.
Hopefully Amazon will keep track of what you buy and allow you to re-download if you lose something. There’s definitely room to improve on Apple’s customer service. And it’s only the Leotards who think Jobs really wants DRM — he’d rather have customer lock-in.
Wow, this article is so low, I actually had to scroll up to see that I’m not on Engadget.
Nothing about the Amazon offer is cool. Nothing is free. Evrything on AmazonMP3 is about getting the RIAA back in control over the marketplace so they can throw the next evil little plan at us.
A few of the commentators got it right: Why not outside the US? Why not on eMusic?
@ Danny + Howard
70-80% market share gets you credit…(just please don’t make this an apple fanboys vs. the rest of the nerds fight)
btw – i was under the impression tht eMusic does subscriptions only?
Don’t confuse DRM-free music with anonymity, each track purchased that is DRM-free music contains code leading back to the source – meaning if you share your music online that has been purchased legally, they can track it back to YOU to pursuit a case against you. This is the only reason why these guys are “signing-on” to this idea.
Jon
http://buzvia.com – Share Influence
Full press release from Amazon here:
http://www.tech...r-major-labels/
Michael A.
I’ve purchased 352 DRM songs from iTunes. Yeah, exactly: 352 songs. So far I’ve purchased 15 non-DRM tracks: 10 from iTunes and 5 from Amazon. Aside from price on only 3 tracks from Amazon, I’ve seen not lessening of my enjoyment of DRM tracks compared to non-DRM tracks. Your snide comment to MGZ makes no sense in relation to this article.
I noticed that none of the artists from Sony BMG-distributed Wind-Up Records like Seether, Creed, and Evanescence are available yet, although Seether seems to indicating they are coming soon.
I like , I like very much . A step in the right direction but will fail in the end.
Just see the light and give it away for free ??
———-
http://www.xencasino.com
Give it away for free! what a moronic statement.
so all the musicians in the world are expected to produce their lifes work for you freeloaders to steal?
Thats one of the main problem with todays society getting everything for nothing in return and ultimately knowing the value of nothing.
One thing that needs to be re-educated (if it can) to the masses is this “take, take, take” philosophy. We haven’t been paying the real price of anything for years. From a physical or ethical standpoint. Something has got to give. Even if prices are distorted by the distributors/record labels “cut” we are not paying the real price.
Jon (#12) – why are you bothered with the tracing? Of course they’re still going to protect their property. The point of this move isn’t to make it easier for you to put music on your blog for download; it’s to make it easier for you to port music for which you have a valid license.