Amazon brings DRM-free music to the world

 

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By Matthew Sparkes

Posted on 28 Jan 2008 at 07:22

Amazon has announced it will launch its DRM-free music store internationally this year, but will not divulge exactly when.

In September the company launched the service in the US, boasting that its 256Kb/sec encoded files would be compatible with most digital music players.

"We have received thousands of emails from Amazon customers around the world asking us when we will make Amazon MP3 available outside of the U.S. We are excited to tell those customers today that Amazon MP3 is going international this year," says Bill Carr, Amazon's vice president of digital music.

Amazon claims to be the only retailer to offer DRM-free MP3s from the four main music labels, after signing a deal with Sony earlier this month.

The company currently offers 3.3 million songs from more than 270,000 artists.