Amazon has announced that the site will be offering “millions” of DRM-free songs from 12,000 record labels in MP3 format later this year. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said, “Our MP3-only strategy means all the music that customers buy on Amazon is always DRM-free and plays on any device. We're excited to have EMI joining us in this effort and look forward to offering our customers MP3s from amazing artists like Coldplay, Norah Jones and Joss Stone.”
For those looking for the catch, there doesn’t appear to be one given that Amazon claims the songs will be playable on PCs, Macs, iPods, Zunes and burnable to CDs. This announcement may be a watershed moment in music history. The only odd thing about the announcement is that Bezos only mentions EMI and not the 11,999 other record labels involved in the DRM-free move.
Obviously some details are still being worked out, but it will be interesting to see if the other major labels are included in a future announcement, or if the majority of the labels indicated are smaller, independent record labels operating as subsidiaries under EMI.
Photo: Etech
