WMG, Amazon pact on MP3 offer
Deal will offer over 2.9 million DRM-free songs
Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) and Warner Music Group (NYSE: WMG) today announced that DRM-free music audio downloads from Warner Music Group are now available to customers on Amazon MP3, Amazon’s a la carte MP3 digital music store where every song and album is playable on virtually any personal digital music capable device. Beginning today, songs from WMG’s digital audio catalog will be available for purchase and download from Amazon MP3. In addition, Amazon and WMG will make available to consumers digital music products such as album bundles containing exclusive tracks.
“Our customers are delighted with our DRM-free MP3 service. We have received thousands of emails from our customers since our September launch thanking us for offering the biggest selection of high-quality, MP3 audio downloads which play on virtually any music device they own today or will own in the future,” said Bill Carr, Amazon.com Vice President of Digital Music. “With the addition of great Warner Music Group content, our customers will discover even more of the music they love on Amazon MP3.”
About Amazon MP3
Launched in September 2007, Amazon MP3
- Offers Earth’s biggest selection of a la carte DRM-free MP3 music downloads with more than 2.9 million songs from over 33,000 record labels.
- Every song and album in the Amazon.com digital music store is available exclusively in the MP3 format without digital rights management (DRM) software. Amazon’s DRM-freeMP3 format enables customers to play their music on virtually any personal digital music capable device—including PCs, Macs™, iPods™, iPhones™, Zunes™, Zens™—and to burn songs to CDs for these customers’ personal use.
- Most songs available on Amazon MP3 are priced from 89 cents to 99 cents, with more than 1 million of the over 2.9 million songs priced at 89 cents. The top 100 best-selling songs are 89 cents, unless marked otherwise. Most albums are priced from $5.99 to $9.99. The top 100 best-selling albums are $8.99 or less, unless marked otherwise.*
- Every song on Amazon MP3 is encoded at 256 kilobits per second, which gives customers high audio quality at a manageable file size.
- Buying and downloading MP3s from Amazon MP3 is easy. Customers can purchase downloads using Amazon 1-Click® shopping, and with the Amazon MP3 Downloader, seamlessly add their MP3s to their iTunes or Windows Media Player libraries.
*Taxes may apply in certain jurisdictions
Digital rights management (DRM)
Digital rights management (DRM) is an umbrella term that refers to access controlcopyright holders to limit usage of digital media or devices. It may also refer to restrictions associated with specific instances of digital works or devices.technologies used by publishers and to some extent, DRM overlaps with copy protection, but DRM is usually applied to creative media (music, films, etc.) whereas copy protection typically refers to software.
The use of digital rights management has been controversial.
Advocates argue it is necessary for copyright holders to prevent unauthorized duplication of their work to ensure continued revenue streams.[1] Opponents, such as The Free Software Foundation, maintain that the use of the word "rights" is misleading and suggest that people instead use the term digital restrictions management.[2]
Their position is essentially that copyright holders are attempting to restrict use of copyrighted material in ways not included in the statutory, common law, or Constitutional grant of exclusive commercial use to them. The Electronic Frontier Foundation, and other opponents, also consider DRM schemes to be anti-competitive practices.[3]
SOURCE:VARIETYSOURCE:WMG
SOURCE:AMAZON
SOURCE:WIKIPEDIA
PHOTOS: WMG AND PRINTACTION.COM
