Amazon Opens DRM-free MP3 Store

While many small start-ups have tried to topple iTunes Store as the dominant digital music seller, none have had quite the heft of its latest competitor, Amazon.  The Seattle-based company introduced the public beta test of its Amazon MP3 music service on Tuesday, which offers a la carte music downloads for 89 or 99 cents per song with no technical restrictions on the use of downloaded songs.

Amazon’s catalog, now at 2 million songs, remains smaller than the 6 million currently available through iTunes, but Amazon’s ace in the hole will be its complete lack of digital rights management on any of its music. Unlike Apple’s proprietary FairPlay DRM, which locks customers into using Apple portable media players in order to listen to the music they’ve paid for, Amazon’s DRM-free tracks will play on any device that handles a run-of-the-mill MP3 file.

Despite this trusting approach to rights management, Amazon has managed to hash out agreements with many major recording artists to sell their work through Amazon MP3. Paul McCartney, the Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, Nirvana, the Beastie Boys and Radiohead will be among the 180,000 artists initially featured.