Warner strikes deal with Amazon

02-01-2008

by Ciara O'Brien

Music label Warner has teamed up with Amazon to sell its music without copy protection through the online retailer's new music store, Amazon MP3.

Warner will allow its music catalogue, which includes artists such as Led Zeppelin and Aretha Franklin, to be distributed in MP3 format. This means it will be compatible with the majority of digital music players, including the iPod.

Amazon refuses to sell music that is copy protected -- great news for consumers, but the labels have taken some persuading to let go of the idea of locking down music.

The move is the latest by the music industry in opening up the previously restricted market, which saw Digital Rights Management (DRM) technology limit what music fans could do with tracks they had legally purchased and downloaded. The software prevents post-purchase sharing of digital music files, and could for example limit how many times a track is burned to CD, or which music players it is transferred to.

Warner has been one of the last of the major labels to resist the change. The first to relent was EMI, which struck a deal with Apple to sell tracks on iTunes without copy protection back in April 2007.

Universal followed, but it chose Amazon over other retailers to sell its unencrypted music -- including iTunes, which has long been considered the king of digital music. EMI has also signed up with Amazon, and a number of independent labels have also cut deals with the online retailer since the September launch of its music site.

This latest agreement means Amazon MP3 now offers more than 2.9 million tracks to download.