Amazon to sell Sony tracks without copy protection

 

Gallery

By Reuters

Posted on 11 Jan 2008 at 07:47

Amazon has announced that it will offer songs from Sony without copy-protection technology or digital rights management.

The deal makes it the first retailer to offer DRM-free songs from all four major music companies in MP3 format, claims Amazon.

Earlier this week, Sony BMG became the last of the four major music companies to start selling its songs without copy protection, with the launch of its MusicPass service.

Though digital music sales have been rising in recent months, they have not made up for the shortfall caused by falling CD sales, forcing executives to consider new business models and methods to boost sales.

One of the issues for music companies in 2007 was whether dropping DRM protection would help drive digital music sales.

EMI, the number four music company in market share, became the first major company to drop DRM in April. It was soon followed by Vivendi's Universal Music Group, which ranks No. 1, and Warner Music Group.