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Topic: Amazon.com Will Be Selling Digital Music In MP3 Format And No DRM (Read 3742 times) previous topic - next topic
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Amazon.com Will Be Selling Digital Music In MP3 Format And No DRM

Good news for MP3 codec fans! 

It looks like the MP3 audio format is still going strong as Amazon.com has announced today that it plans to sell MP3 digital music downloads on it's Internet site sometime later in 2007. I am not sure if this only applies to Amazon's US domestic website or all international purchases as well. The best news is of course there will be no DRM applied to Amazon's digital music. I assume this means that most "major" US record labels (except EMI) will NOT be offering their music catalog on Amazon.com since Amazon will sell their music without drm restrictions.

In my opinion, now that both Apple iTunes and Amazon.com will be selling digital music without DRM, I think it is only a matter of time (hopefully very soon) that all the "major" US record labels start offering digital downloads without any DRM restrictions. I can only hope this will happen someday!

Here is today's news quote from BusinessWeek.com online:

"Online retailer Amazon.com on Wednesday said it plans to launch a digital music store later this year featuring songs without copy protection restrictions.

The store will feature millions of songs from 12,000 labels able to be played on a range of devices including iPods, Microsoft's Zune players and personal computers. Files will be offered in the standard MP3 format.

EMI Music is the latest to license its music catalog to the store.

Amazon did not say how much songs would cost or the terms on which it would offer music -- per song, per album, by subscription or some combination of those plans. It also did not specify a date for the launch of the store.

Shares rose 40 cents to $60.98 in morning trading."

End of Quote.

Amazon.com Will Be Selling Digital Music In MP3 Format And No DRM

Reply #1 –
Quote from: Ajax on
I assume this means that most "major" US record labels (except EMI)

[pedant]Only one of the big four record labels is American owned [/pedant]

But yes this is good news.

Amazon.com Will Be Selling Digital Music In MP3 Format And No DRM

Reply #2 –
Quote from: Ajax on
I am not sure if this only applies to Amazon's US domestic website or all international purchases as well.

http://www.heise.de reports that initially the offer would only be available for US customers. By verifying the payment informations Amazon was going to make sure that international customers wouldn't be able to download any MP3s from the US site. They didn't exclude the possibility to make the offer available for further markets, but they had also stated that there were no concrete plans to expand it yet.

Amazon.com Will Be Selling Digital Music In MP3 Format And No DRM

Reply #3 –
The key of course is the bitrate and encoder. It would be slick if they used LAME -V2...but what are the odds of that?
iTunes 10 - Mac OS X 10.6
256kbps AAC VBR
iPhone 4 32GB

Amazon.com Will Be Selling Digital Music In MP3 Format And No DRM

Reply #4 –
Quote from: Ajax on
In my opinion, now that both Apple iTunes and Amazon.com will be selling digital music without DRM, I think it is only a matter of time (hopefully very soon) that all the "major" US record labels start offering digital downloads without any DRM restrictions. I can only hope this will happen someday!
Lots of stores already sell MP3s, the only difference with this announcement is the EMI element . As for Amazon's music store, it's been "just around the corner" for quite a while. I'll believe these announcements when I actually see the store open and the tracks on sale...
EAC>1)fb2k>LAME3.99 -V 0 --vbr-new>WMP12 2)MAC-Extra High

Amazon.com Will Be Selling Digital Music In MP3 Format And No DRM

Reply #5 –
Quote from: Ajax on
Good news for MP3 codec fans! 

It looks like the MP3 audio format is still going strong as Amazon.com has announced today that it plans to sell MP3 digital music downloads on it's Internet site sometime later in 2007...



MP3 is King!