Sony BMG Gives DRM Free Catalog To Amazon

AND THEN THERE WERE NONE

UPDATED: The entire Sony BMG catalog will be available on Amazon MP3 beginning later this month. Sony BMG is the last major label to drop DRM.  BusinessWeek recently suggested that SonyBMG would drop DRM for select experiments, but Hypebot broke the story of the label group going totally DRM free last Friday.

This makes Amazon MP3 the only retailer to offer DRM free tracks from every major record label as well as 33,000 indie labels. Sources tell Hypebot that other download stores will begin selling DRM free product from all four majors before the end of the first quarter of the year.

As with all tracks in the broad Amazon mp3 catalog, Sony BMG’s DRM free offering is playable on any device using any software and to burn songs to CDs.

“We are excited to offer Amazon MP3 customers DRM-free MP3s from SONY BMG, which represents many of the most popular musicians from the past and present,” said Bill Carr, Amazon.com Vice President for Digital Music.  “Our Amazon MP3 customers will be able to choose from a full selection of DRM-free music downloads from all four major labels and over 33,000 independents that they can play on virtually any music-capable device.” 

“We are excited to be working with Amazon as they continue to build new markets for digital music,” commented Thomas Hesse, President, Global Digital Business & U.S. Sales, SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT. “We are constantly exploring new ways of making our music available to consumers in the physical space, over the internet and through mobile phones, and this initiative is the newest element of our ongoing campaign to bring our music to fans wherever they happen to be."