Amazon MP3

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Lady Gaga Sells 1.1M Born This Way in First Week

Amazon deal helps album hit milestone

(Newser) - Lady Gaga's new album Born This Way has zoomed to mega-hit status with sales of 1.11 million copies in its first week, making it the hottest-selling debut for an album since 50 Cent's The Massacre in 2005, according to Billboard . Only 17 albums in the last 20...

Apple Music Business in Antitrust Crosshairs

Amazon says it intimidated record labels

(Newser) - The Justice Department is investigating whether something might be rotten in Apple's music business, sources tell the New York Times , focusing on whether the tech behemoth threw its weight into dissuading record labels from giving Amazon exclusives. Amazon wanted the exclusive right to sell certain songs for one day before...

Internet Music Retailers Race to Cut Prices

(Newser) - Faced with crumbling CD sales and a digital market without enough oomph to compensate, online music sellers are slashing prices to lure buyers, the Boston Globe reports. “It is the schoolyard crack dealer approach,” one analyst said. Amazon MP3 offers sought-after albums for $3.99, and others for...

Amazon MP3 Sales Aren’t Hurting iTunes

New download service taps into unique demographic

(Newser) - Amazon.com’s digital music download store isn’t stealing iTunes customers—the six-month-old service is attracting a new consumer demographic, analysts say. A market research firm found that only 10 percent of Amazon MP3 customers surveyed in February previously bought iTunes music, AppleInsider reports. That’s a “healthy...

Sony BMG Will Bail on DRM
Sony BMG
Will Bail
on DRM

Sony BMG Will Bail on DRM

Label becomes fourth and final industry giant to ditch copy protection

(Newser) - Sony BMG will begin offering at least part of its music catalogue online without restrictive digital rights management mechanisms, Business Week reports. The decision comes after the other three major labels—Warner, EMI, and Universal—decided to ditch DRM in 2007, challenging Apple's 80% share of the legal music downloads...

Amazon Gets Funky With Warner Music
Amazon Gets Funky With Warner Music

Amazon Gets Funky With Warner Music

DRM-free iTunes competitor continues to attract big labels

(Newser) - Amazon’s burgeoning mp3 service landed another big fish today, adding Warner Music’s catalog to its online store. The Amazon shop aims to compete with Apple’s iTunes, selling songs for 89 cents as opposed to Apple’s 99 cents and without digital rights management software that makes sharing...

Apple Slashes Price of DRM free iTunes

Songs now cost the same with or without copy protection

(Newser) - Apple has dropped the price of its Digital Rights Management (DRM)-free iTunes Plus songs from $1.29 to 99 cents, the same price at which it offers its copy-protected songs, news.com reports. The move looks like a response to  the September 25th launch of Amazon's mp3 store, which offers...

Amazon Aims at iTunes With Own Digital Music Store

Low prices, lack of DRM major selling points

(Newser) - Amazon threw down the guantlet to iTunes today when it launched its digital music store, Amazon MP3. Roughly 2 million songs are available for 89-99 cents each, with albums going for $5.99 to $9.99. Not only do those prices beat iTunes's, but all the files are DRM-free. Selection...

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