It has been on the cards for quite a long time, but Amazon.com have finally launched their drm-free MP3 music download service.
Amazon MP3 offers over 2 Million songs from more than 180,000 artists and over 20,000 Labels, including EMI Music and Universal Music Group.
“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.
You can navigate to the relevant section of the site via a link from the Amazon.com homepage or use the direct link http://www.amazonmp3.com.
This could well be the iTunes-killer that the record companies have been looking for. By insisting on the implementation of DRM before they licensed their catalogues to Apple the major labels basically shot themselves in the foot because they thereby gave Apple control over the music and allowed their consumers to become locked in to using Apple iPods.
Apple became the distribution channel for downloadable music and could then set the terms by which music would be sold online.
With the arrival of what is probably the largest online retailer of music on CD in to the arena of music downloads the future looks interesting.
