Sony on Amazon

Sony sells music on Amazon's MP3 store

Sony BMG Music Entertainment is to become the fourth and final major label to sell digital music without copyright protection through Amazon.com, the world's largest online retailer, Deutsche PresseAgentur in New York reported on Friday.

Not only does the move announced by the two companies make Amazon a strong rival to Apple's iTunes, the leading digital music store, but Sony BMG's conversion to the MP3 format also deals a blow to the software known as digital rights management, or DRM, which is meant to keep consumers from making unauthorised copies of copyrighted digital material.

Sony BMG, the secondlargest music company in the world, says it would begin offering its music catalogue - which includes such performers as Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Justin Timberlake, the Foo Fighters, Beyonce, Celine Dion and Britney Spears - on Amazon by the end of the month.

It followed the Universal Music Group and EMI Group, which began selling their music on Amazon's MP3 store when it started up in September, as well as Warner Music Group, which signed up in December.

Digital music bought from Amazon can be played on virtually any digital device, including iPods, Microsoft Corp's Zune, personal computers, Macs, mobile phones and Blackberries. Music bought from iTunes, however, can only be played on iPods.

New Yorkbased Sony BMG's partnership with Amazon followed its announcement at the beginning of the week that it would begin limited selling of DRMfree music on the Internet that would require buyers first to buy plastic cards at retail stores that would contain a code allowing them to go online and download certain albums.

The Nation