| Amazon opens DRM-free music download store |
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| Written by Stephen Withers | |
| Wednesday, 26 September 2007 | |
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Warner Music and Sony BMG have yet to join the move to DRM-free music. Universal has chosen not to offer unprotected tracks through the iTunes Store, teaming instead with Wal-Mart and now Amazon. All Amazon MP3 songs are encoded at 256Kbps VBR, which should be at least comparable with Apple's 128Kbps AAC files in terms of audio quality, though probably not quite up to the standard of 256Kbps unprotected AAC iTunes Plus downloads. The absence of DRM means purchased tracks can be played on practically any current computer, portable music player or mobile phone. More than half the songs are priced at $US0.89, with others selling for up to $US0.99. Most albums are priced between $US5.99 and $US9.99, with Amazon MP3's top 100 albums normally priced at $US8.99. This compares with the iTunes Store's flat rate of $US0.99 per song ($US1.29 for unprotected tracks) and album prices mostly between $US7.99 and $US11.99. "Amazon MP3 is an all-MP3, DRM-free catalog of a la carte music from major labels and independent labels, playable on any device, in high-quality audio, at low prices," said Bill Carr, Amazon.com vice president for digital music. "This new digital music service has already been through an extensive private beta, and today we're excited to offer it to our customers as a fully functional public beta. We look forward to receiving feedback from our customers and using their input to refine the service." Amazon offers a free downloader program for Windows and Mac OS X. It is not required for purchasing single tracks, but mandatory for albums and for using Amazon's 1-click feature. The Downloader automatically adds purchases to iTunes or Windows Media Player libraries.
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