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Amazon.com has announced that DRM-free MP3 music downloads from SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT will be available to customers on Amazon MP3, Amazon’s DRM-free MP3 digital music store where every song is playable on virtually any digital music-capable device, including PCs, Macs, iPod, Zune, Zen, iPhone, RAZR and BlackBerry. When SONY BMG is added later this month, Amazon MP3 will be the only retailer to offer customers DRM-free MP3s from all four major music labels, as well as over 33,000 independent labels.

 

“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.”

Full Release

Tags: Amazon, Sony BMG

At long last Microsoft has announced that the long awaited European launch of Video Marketplace on Xbox Live will take place on 11th December.

Called “Xbox Live Marketplace Video Store” in line with Microsoft’s new naming convention, the service will allow you to rent films in standard- and high-definition, although there’s no mention of TV shows. Films will cost 250 Microsoft Points (GBP 2.13 / EUR 2.91) in standard definition and 380 MS Points (GBP 3.23 / EUR 4.42) for high definition, and early examples include 300, The Matrix trilogy, the first two Harry Potter films and Clash of the Titans.

As of 11th December, the service will have been launched in six countries - the US, Canada, UK, Ireland, France and Germany - to varying degrees. In the UK, Xbox Live’s Video Store currently features music videos from the likes of Ministry of Sound and Sony BMG.

All sounds good except - they are launching with only 27 films. A tad disappointing for a company of Microsofts size and clout. Surely they could have generated something a little more overwhelming? Come on Microsoft - if you are moving into showbiz you need to learn to launch with a little more pazazz!!

The ‘full’ list of launch films (albeit subject to change) is as follows: [Read more]

Tags: Microsoft, Ministry of Sound, Sony BMG

The online version of BusinessWeek is reporting that Universal Music Group CEO, Doug Morris, is enlisting the support of major record labels to launch a new music subscription service to compete with Apple iTunes. Morris also hopes to encourage users to gravitate to other players such as the Microsoft Zune. The report says that Morris has already enlisted Sony BMG Music Entertainment as a potential partner and is talking to Warner Music Group.

The move comes following long-term dissatisfaction amongst music industry leaders with the terms imposed by Apple for access to the iTunes store. It is thought that Apple collects approximately 30% of the value of each song sold. The conflict between Morris and Steve Jobs bubbled to the surface in July 2007 when Universal declined to renew its long term agreement to release its music through iTunes.

Although not quite still emerged from its egg, the new service provisionally called Total Music will ask the player hardware companies to absorb subscription charges so that consumers will get their music for free. This is going to be a tough model to develop and Morris as some way to go before he can dent Apple’s dominance of the music download market. iTunes handles approximately 70% of US downloads.

Tags: Apple, Microsoft, Sony BMG, Universal Music, Warner Music