Amazon to sell digital music free of copy curbs

By Eric Auchard

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc. said on Wednesday the company will launch a digital music store later in 2007 with millions of songs, free of copy protection technology that limits where consumers can play their music.

The Seattle-based company said music company EMI Group Plc, home to artists ranging from Coldplay to Norah Jones to Joss Stone to Pink Floyd, has licensed its digital catalog to Amazon, the second such deal in a month.

Amazon, the world's top online retailer of music on compact discs, is poised to move into the online download market now dominated by Apple Inc.'s iTunes store.

With all music companies struggling from a drop in the sale of physical albums, EMI, had announced its first deal with Apple and the iTunes online music store in April. Also on Wednesday, EMI announced similar deals with VirginMega in France and with various online retailers across Scandinavia.

"Our MP3-only strategy means all the music that customers buy on Amazon is always DRM-free and plays on any device," Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder and chief executive, said in a statement.

Digital Rights Management, or DRM, has been demanded by the music industry to rein in piracy by preventing users from making multiple copies; but its critics say it restricts consumers and therefore hinders the growth of legal music uses.

Earlier this year, Steve Jobs, Apple's co-founder and chief executive, called on the world's four major record companies, including EMI, to start selling songs online without DRM copy-protection software. He said he saw no benefit for the record companies in selling more than 90 percent of their music without DRM on compact discs, while selling the remaining small percentage of music online encumbered with DRM.

Last month, EMI said it would make its music available online without anti-piracy measures, becoming the first major music group to take the risk in a bid to grow digital sales.