First of all the Dream Team would like to welcome everybody to 2008 with a Happy New Year – hope your celebrations were as poppin’! But now getting down to business: Amazon MP3 and Warner Music Group are in concert together to sell Warner’s catalog through the retail giant’s MP3 service…
So last time I wrote about Warner Music Group and its CEO, Edgar Bronfman Jr., I illustrated his sudden change of heart in praising Apple for what it has done digitally to counter fleeting physical music sales. Months later this subject is at the forefront again because Warner Music Group (WMG) has decided to sell DRM-free downloads through the download service available through Amazon.com.
Beginning December 27th Warner Music Group will offer its digital catalog via Amazon MP3 for downloads that contain no DRM. Additionally WMG will offer various packages of MP3’s, including album highlights that contain exclusive tracks from that particular artist. To see if any of your favorite artists are under the Warner Music Group umbrella click here for a quick overview of all genres and labels.
What makes this feat so monumental is that as of today, all four of the majors have not only finally jumped on board and begun offering their catalogs digitally, but also stripped them of their Digital Rights Management technology. For those who may be jumping the gun, Sony BMG is slated to make its full digital debut in late-January when it launches its “artist specific digital download album cards.”
Finally, catalogs from all four majors are available digitally at various locations through various markets throughout the Internet. So what finally changed? What made them budge and give grounds to making these catalogs available? A simple change of heart? Or did losing money and failing physical record sales stimulate this change in attitude? Who knows, but more will definitely follow from this later on throughout ‘08 I’m sure so you know where to find it first when it does!
-cP
Tags: amazon, digital rights, digital rights management, drm, edgar bronfman, warner music group, wmg
