When Apple announced at its final Macworld Expo that it was revamping iTunes to enable variable pricing and offer every track in DRM-free AAC format, it also created a bit of a problem for long-time (or big-spending) iTunes customers. Apple would let customers upgrade their existing DRM-protected iTunes tracks to DRM-free iTunes Plus format for $0.30…but it would only enable customers to upgrade their music libraries in one fell swoop. So, if a user has 100 DRM-protected tracks, the only way to upgrade to DRM-free iTunes Plus versions would be to spend $30.00 all at once—and for many users, that kind of up-front charge is more than they want to spend at iTunes in one go.
Tag Archive: DRM-free
Napster Offers 6 Million DRM-Free MP3s
Making good on the promise it made earlier this year to deliver DRM-free MP3s, Napster launched its new Napster Store on Tuesday, which it claims is the largest of its kind in the world. Without DRM, the technology that limits how users can share and play music, its MP3 downloads will be compatible with nearly every type of media player, including the iPod and iPhone.
Although its promise of 6 million tracks for download puts it roughly on par with iTunes’ DRM-protected offerings, making those tracks available without DRM undoubtedly makes Napster the largest DRM-free retailer. By contrast, iTunes offers about 2 million songs in its DRM-free “iTunes Plus” format, and Amazon’s completely DRM-free catalog includes roughly 3 million tracks.
Amazon MP3 Goes Worldwide
Besides murmurs about Yahoo diving into DRM-free music and Qtrax attempting to put profit back into stolen tracks, the past few days have also brought Amazon’s announcement that it would be pushing its own DRM-free music service worldwide. Amazon announced on Sunday that Amazon MP3 would soon be springing up international sites in response to consumer demand.
“We have received thousands of e-mails from Amazon customers around the world asking us when we will make Amazon MP3 available outside of the U.S.” said Bill Carr, Amazon’s vice president of digital music, in a statement. “We are excited to tell those customers today that Amazon MP3 is going international this year.”
Napster to Offer DRM-Free MP3s
Long-struggling digital music service Napster has announced it will be embracing the DRM-free mindset, and plans to begin offering DRM-free digital music to its customers in MP3 format beginning in the second quarter of 2008. Until this point, Napster has focussed on selling music in Microsoft’s Windows Media format under the PlaysForSure platform; however, PlaysForSure has not offered a seamless experience across music players, doesn’t work with Apple’s market-leading iPod, and even Microsoft abandoned the PlaysForSure platform with its Zune portable media players. By offering DRM-free MP3 music, Napster hopes to re-invigorate its digital music business and offer customers a source for music that works on essentially any device capable of handling digital music.
MusicNet Offers Over 1 Mln DRM-Free Tracks
Apple may have been the first out the gate with selling DRM-free music tracks via its iTunes Plus offering—and Amazon.com quickly announcing plans to follow—but now MusicNet has announced it will offer over one million DRM-free music tracks to its partners. MusicNet—the music unit of the newly-named MediaNet Digital—is the service provider behind a number of digital music download servers that, well, that aren’t iTunes, including Yahoo Music Unlimited, Microsoft/MTV partnership URGE, AOL, Charter, iMesh, HMV, and many more.





