[Users] Fw: Wal-Mart selling DRM-free digital music

[Cory McMahon]

Hi all,

I thought some of you may find this of interest:


----- Original Message ----- 
From: Ray T. Mahorney 
To: blind-chit-chat at yahoogroups.com 
Sent: Tuesday, August 21, 2007 4:00 PM
Subject: Wal-Mart selling DRM-free digital music


Wal-Mart selling DRM-free digital music

By Reuters

http://news.com.com/Wal-Mart+selling+DRM-free+digital+music/2100-1025_3-6203574.html

Story last modified Tue Aug 21 05:01:10 PDT 2007

Wal-Mart Stores said on Tuesday that it was now selling digital music 
downloads on its Web site without the customary copy-protection technology 
that limits where consumers can play the songs.

Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, said its new MP3 music catalog 
included thousands of albums and songs from major record labels like 
Vivendi's Universal Music Group and EMI Group without copy-protection 
software, known as digital rights management.

Wal-Mart said it would sell the "DRM-free" MP3 downloads of music by 
artists like the Rolling Stones, Amy Winehouse and Maroon 5 for 94 cents 
per track or $9.22 per album. It said the new format let customers play 
music on almost any device, including iPods, iPhones and Microsoft's Zune 
portable media player.

The announcement comes as major record labels debate whether dropping DRM 
will hurt digital music sales or encourage piracy. Copy protection software 
prevents unauthorized copying of a digital song bought from an online 
store, but it also limits where an owner can listen to it.

Apple co-founder and Chief Executive Steve Jobs has called on the music 
industry to allow online retailers like iTunes to sell songs without 
restrictions to give the digital music sector a boost and to give consumers 
what they want.

Universal, the world's largest music label, said earlier this month that it 
was testing the sale of songs without copy-protection software and said 
vendors including Google, Wal-Mart and Amazon.com would participate in the 
DRM-free trial.

EMI has also agreed to drop DRM, but Sony BMG Music Entertainment and 
Warner Music Group are still testing the impact of such a move on digital 
music sales.

Apple, whose iTunes online music stores is the third-largest music retailer 
in the United States, has launched iTunes Plus, a copy-protection-free 
music download service.


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