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January 10, 2008

Amazon Completes DRM-Free Roster With Sony-BMG

Erick Schonfeld

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amazonmp3-logo.png 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?

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This entry was posted on Thursday, January 10th, 2008 at 1:41 pm and is filed under Company & Product Profiles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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Comments

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  1. MGZ

    January 10th, 2008 at 1:58 pm

    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

  2. Michael Arrington

    January 10th, 2008 at 2:01 pm

    MGZ - exactly how many DRM’d songs have you actually purchased? Right, exactly zero.

  3. Nick P

    January 10th, 2008 at 2:23 pm

    Yes, but when are they going to launch AmazonMP3 outside the USA?

  4. making ethanol

    January 10th, 2008 at 2:28 pm

    wonder if that will affect Amazon’s share price.

  5. Howard

    January 10th, 2008 at 2:49 pm

    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.

  6. Danny

    January 10th, 2008 at 2:53 pm

    >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?

  7. ryan troy

    January 10th, 2008 at 3:15 pm

    Hopefully Amazon’s reporting will be better than what itunes currently offers affiliates.

  8. Tom

    January 10th, 2008 at 3:32 pm

    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.

  9. Larry Larrikin

    January 10th, 2008 at 3:39 pm

    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.

  10. Murmillo

    January 10th, 2008 at 3:41 pm

    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?

  11. zxspectrum

    January 10th, 2008 at 3:49 pm

    @ 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?

  12. Jon

    January 10th, 2008 at 5:03 pm

    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

  13. Bob Caswell

    January 10th, 2008 at 6:53 pm

    Full press release from Amazon here:

    http://www.techconsumer.com/20.....or-labels/

  14. fernando

    January 10th, 2008 at 10:10 pm

    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.

  15. Michael Pate

    January 11th, 2008 at 3:47 am

    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.

  16. Timothy

    January 11th, 2008 at 6:26 am

    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

  17. Martin Morgan

    January 12th, 2008 at 11:09 am

    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.

  18. c-bot

    January 13th, 2008 at 1:32 pm

    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.

  19. Jay

    January 14th, 2008 at 5:52 am

    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.

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