Sony BMG to add DRM-free MP3s to Amazon

Sony BMG is readying the other half of their reported move away from DRMed music; two days ago, they announced plans to release retail gift cards which can be redeemed for plain 'ol MP3s, but there was no word of a plan that wouldn't require people to actually leave their caves or, heaven forbid, dress themselves. Cue the other shoe: Amazon announced today that they will be hosting DRM-free Sony BMG tracks, completing its collection of DRM-free tracks from each of the four major music labels, which already includes EMI, Vivendi Universal, and Warner. The Sony BMG tracks will be available "later this month" and should be priced commensurate with the service's current offerings.

[Zak @ Jan 10th 2008 5:52PM]

Burn, DRM, burn! Muahahahahaa!

But seriously, this is full of win.

[pigfister @ Jan 11th 2008 4:43AM]

you still have HDCP (HDMI DRM) and this is going to filter all copies from future hardware so don't go waving the banners this early.

All they are doing is teaching Steve Jobs a lesson because he will not allow the BIG STUDIOS to rip off ppl by overcharging and bundle packages!

Boycotting apple is about taking control so global price fixing can resume by the RIAA.

Apple to cut UK download prices http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7178651.stm

FTA: Apple said it could not have a single European iTunes store because of copyright problems, and contractual restrictions put in place by record labels.


http://www.engadget.com/2008/01/07/sony-bmg-skips-drm-for-platinum-musicpass-mp3-gift-cards/

FTA: Sony BMG Music Entertainment just announced Platinum MusicPass, retail gift cards which can be traded in for digital music, delivered to you in "high-quality" – and notably DRM-free – MP3 files. No word on precisely what bitrate constitutes high-quality, but for $12.99 (or $19.99 for a couple special edition albums)

WTF has anyone told sony about reduced overheads in digital distribution, $12.99 for albums found in the bargain bin FFS!



Radiohead: Artists often screwed by digital downloads
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080102-radiohead-artists-often-screwed-by-digital-downloads.html

FTA: You might think, if you didn't work in the music business, that famous artists stand to make mad cash from popular albums on iTunes and other digital storefronts. Sadly, that's not the case, and Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke has spent the last week calling out the labels for it. He recently told BBC Radio 4 that "the big infrastructure of the music business has not addressed the way artists communicate directly with their fans. In fact, they seem to basically get in the way. Not only do they get in the way, but they take all the cash."





ITS ABOUT GLOBAL PRICE FIXING AND THEY ARE LOSING CONTROL AND WANT IT BACK!


The BPI (British Phonographic Industry) Are: SONY, UNIVERSAL, WARNER GROUP, EMI.

The RIAA Soundexchange Are: SONY, UNIVERSAL, WARNER GROUP, EMI.

The MPAA Are: SONY, UNIVERSAL, WARNER GROUP, DISNEY, PARAMOUNT, FOX.

[Student Driver @ Jan 11th 2008 11:49AM]

I went to eMusic for stuff I can't easily find DRM free, or even the CDs for locally (Saltillo for example). It's good to hear I'll be able to complete my vast T'Pau and Animotion collection with these companies coming around...

[Luke @ Jan 10th 2008 5:54PM]

Bye DRMed music. You will not be missed.

[booticon @ Jan 10th 2008 5:57PM]

Amazon is the way to go for me for DRM-free music nowadays. High-quality unencrypted cheap music.

FTW.

[BigDaddyM @ Jan 10th 2008 6:38PM]

What bitrate will these be? What is Amazon's standard bit rate?
M

[Nate @ Jan 10th 2008 6:41PM]

256kbps, amazon really is the way to go, ive been using them increasingly overtime and its really awesome especially now with all of the labels in the pot.

[Nate @ Jan 10th 2008 6:41PM]

256kbps, amazon really is the way to go, ive been using them increasingly overtime and its really awesome especially now with all of the labels in the pot.

[bradwjensen @ Jan 10th 2008 6:58PM]

Arg, now they need to add a choice to download in flac.

[Iain @ Jan 10th 2008 6:01PM]

Now how about getting rid of DRM music in every other online music store.

[DanielHauser @ Jan 10th 2008 6:02PM]

How come the labels are releasing DRMFree tracks on amazon while keeping their itunes tracks with DRM? And will itunes get the same treatment soon?

[dfsdsdf @ Jan 10th 2008 6:19PM]

They probably think that iTunes consumers are easier to rip off than other people. Which might just be true.

[Zak @ Jan 10th 2008 6:15PM]

MacWorld Expo is next week. I have a feeling we will see some announcements regarding this very thing.

[yoshi @ Jan 10th 2008 6:20PM]

Because they want to kill Apple. They might be up for a lawsuit, however, if they willfully refuse to offer a similar deal to Apple.

[Duscrom @ Jan 10th 2008 7:00PM]

Aple want's to keep making money off of stupid iPod buyers. Apple is as greedy as any other company. Amazon MP3 is great.. because it's a blow to apple's Monopoly. Apple clearly doesn't want to give people an easy reason to NOT use iPods.

[tekdemon @ Jan 12th 2008 6:34AM]

Duscram, you're an idiot. There are iTunes plus songs available in the iTunes store that work on any music player that supports AAC (which is a lot of them), but the labels won't unDRM most of the newer stuff.

[celeritas @ Jan 10th 2008 6:06PM]

I remember when Amazon.com was just a book store. Now they're making iTunes, Rhapsody and every other digital music store look down right antiquated. Good riddance DRM, we never liked you.

[cswallow01 @ Jan 10th 2008 6:44PM]

This is the labels teaching Apple a lesson. They sale their music on Amazon a direct iTunes competitor, while making Apple sweat it for not complying with their (the labels) wishes. The labels were sick of not getting their way with iTunes and are tired of not being able to reach the iPod ecosystem without Apple's say so. So, they bypass Apple and now they not only cover the iPod, but every other device on the market, the way they want to. There will not and cannot be a lawsuit from Apple on this. Apple still has rights to sale all of their music, but with DRM. Apple's punishment for being so big, is that they will haft to sit tight for a while, while us consumers reap the benefits of an alternate DRM-Free, but iTunes/iPod compatible music service. Especially Universal Music Group. It may be a long while before they have a DRM-Free library. I can assure you once, Amazon or any other DRM-Free service gets big enough to create a good competitive market, Apple with get DRM-Free too... The labels, just don't want Apple having all the control anymore. They're tired of it, and they want a healthy competitive market with other services and options. They want people to know that iTunes isn't the only game in town, anymore. They don't want to depend on iTunes anymore and as long as Amazon can create software that throws purchases into iTunes and onto iPod quickly, that's all the average consumer knows they need!

The labels just don't want Apple to have that much control over them, anymore. iTunes being number one and labels having to cave to Apple's demands... and I can certainly understand that!

But even if Apple gets all the labels, they will still encode in AAC, and since very few MP3 Players currently provide AAC compatibility (though the list is growing), Amazon is still covering 100% of the market with MP3. Apple is covering... what 40% of the DAP market with AAC?

Creative & Sandisk are slowly beginning to support AAC, but very slowly. The Zune, Mylo 2 and PSP (with firmware 3.80 finally fully supports AAC M4A track tags) of course does support it... All current cellphones sold at AT&T support it...

So although AAC is moving slowly towards full support, it's not quite there yet... Then past that, Apple should be sued for not allowing other devices into the iTunes playground, even when they have a DRM-Free music catalog.

[Jeff @ Jan 10th 2008 6:57PM]

"Apple is covering... what 40% of the DAP market with AAC?"

er... last i heard, the iPod was still well over 70% of the mp3 player market. ...they haven't had numbers like 40% since 2004 (which was before they competed in the flash-based market.)

I understand what you're saying, but your numbers are way off.

[Zak @ Jan 10th 2008 7:00PM]

Like I said above, wait till after the MacWorld Expo keynote next week before deciding that the labels are "teaching Apple a lesson".

[tande @ Jan 10th 2008 7:44PM]

Regardless of what gets anounced at Macworld. This is the labels "teaching apple a lesson".

If there is some massive DRM free anouncement at Macworld odds are its going to be an answer to amazon's moves and not an addition to.

The labels haven't liked apple's corner on the market for quite sometime, thus their embrace of amazon's DRM free store. Its the only way they could compete with the iTunes while still getting their music on the best selling DAP.

As said above, there aren't going to be any lawsuits over it because its apple's end of the deal to put the DRM on there in the first place. They could renegotiate contracts but now that there is a real competetor apple would be forced to take a smaller cut to go DRM free, which might not be what they want.

I think that if or when apple gets all of their music DRM free its going to be at apple's expense with the labels getting closer to what they want.

[yoshi @ Jan 10th 2008 8:35PM]

If all the labels get together to "teach Apple a lesson" by collectively refusing to let Apple sell DRMless content while they allow other sites to do so? There most definitely CAN be a lawsuit about this.

[cswallow01 @ Jan 10th 2008 7:15PM]

I meant from everyone other than Apple, above... I apologize for not making that clear. Sony/Sony Ericsson (my personal favorites), Creative, Sandisk, Motorola, Samsung (cellphones). AAC support for the rest of the DAP market is 40%.

BMG & WMG may jump to iTunes, but we know they won't get UMG for quite sometime!!!

Warner will jump, but I'm not sure about BMG. Sony is a different breed. But maybe, just maybe...

[Phineas J. Whoopsie @ Jan 10th 2008 7:19PM]

This is not good news for the iTunes store. Even if they do go DRM free, unless they cut over to MP3, there's no reason to buy their AAC format. MP3 is universal and will play on every software/hardware player in existence.

Apple held a bully position in the market and used it. Now, there are alternatives, and the record companies are more than happy to open up new avenues away from Lord Jobs.

[vandy @ Jan 10th 2008 7:45PM]

of course there is still reason to buy from itunes. it's a very well integrated system with a tidy search/browse system for a music store. amazon mp3's website offers the content but it is no where near as easy to navigate as the iTMS. On top of that, the iPhone and iPod touch have the music store built into them as well, which is incredibly convenient. Then finally, AAC is a better compression scheme than MP3, so if you have the ability to play the songs then you will be getting a better sound per byte. Anyways, I love what Amazon is doing in getting DRM free music out there, but the record labels, if they were sincere, would allow the consumer to choose which music store to buy their music from. There is nothing about buying music from the iTMS that locks me into any particular product so I don't understand anybody's worries there. Have we all forgotten Apple's open letter, "Thoughts on Music" so quickly?

[Trent @ Jan 10th 2008 8:07PM]

If I cannot get an album I want at Emusic.com (independent/indie stuff) for about $3-4 an album, I will get it from Amazon. Both offer DRM free music and a much better quality and compression rate of 192-256 VBR (MP3 LAME encoder) than iTunes which is at 128kps ACC.

Sooner or later, iTunes will have to give in to the direction of the market...

[Phineas J. Whoopsie @ Jan 10th 2008 10:09PM]

Did Apple (Jobs) write an open letter solely from altruistic reasons......or did they see the writing on the wall that their online music monopoly was about to end?

Seriously. Amazon's music store and record deals didn't appear from thin air. These talks must have been ongoing for quite a while.

In any event, this is a great day for music consumers.

[Reader @ Jan 10th 2008 7:47PM]

Sony moving away from DRM? Did I wake up in the wrong universe?

[vandy @ Jan 10th 2008 8:13PM]

Well that's simply not true. Apple offers their DRM free music in AAC at 256 kbps. The argument here is over whether the record labels should allow Apple to sell their DRM free music as well. Apple has been selling EMI as well as Indie music DRM free since October, before Amazon MP3 even existed. iTunes isn't holding out on having a DRM scheme. Apple was the one urging the industry to accept DRM free music sales, but the companies seem to embrace this idea but instead choose to sell their music through other channels.

[Trent @ Jan 10th 2008 8:26PM]

Please, iTunes listing of DRM free music is extremely tiny. Good luck finding anything...

[Valgas @ Jan 10th 2008 9:19PM]

So how many songs have you purchased from Amazon already?

[greg @ Jan 10th 2008 11:31PM]

Me personally? Couple albums worth - personally I like the end to end integration of itunes/ipod but slightly cheaper tracks and a decent enough integration have definitely made me switch. I would rather all media at all sites was non DRM'd.

[Simon @ Jan 11th 2008 2:40AM]

Why purchase music (DRM'd or not) from anywhere when you can nearly* always download it for free via torrents or rip it from CDs bought in the past (for old albums). I have 80+ GBs of MP3s and all of them are CD rips or torrent downloads.

*some rare or obscure music is hard to find torrents of

[Andrew @ Jan 11th 2008 9:59AM]

Because most people don't want to get sued.

[Pedrotheguitar @ Jan 11th 2008 1:20PM]

The whole reason DRM has ever been an issue is because of pirating music. If the music companies weren't freaking out about pirated music then DRM wouldn't be a problem because the average consumer wouldn't be viewed as a criminal.

[Vince @ Jan 11th 2008 10:11PM]

If everybody did that we wouldn't have to worry about DRM, as there wouldn't be any music. Its because of people like you that we have to worry about DRM in the first place.

[greg @ Jan 11th 2008 10:36AM]

In the past all (or close enough to it) audio download services we're DRM encumbered.
Apple builds a player/store/tune manage that many people seem to like and our rewarded with many loyal customers
Apple pushes labels for DRM free music
Apple continues to give customers what the want
Labels decide that Apple is too big and try to knock them down some by offering DRM free music to another music supplier.
We all win with DRM free music and competition that will lead to lower prices....

Seems like we should be thanking Apple.