DRM-free music arms race: Amazon has 2.9 million tracks

by Brad Linder Dec 27th 2007

2007 has been something of a watershed year for DRM-free digital music. Well, legal DRM-free music sales anyway. First Apple announced plans to sell music that you could listen to on any player, and then Amazon beat them to the punch by launching a music store first.

While Apple continues to sell DRM-laden tracks in addition to unrestricted AAC files, Amazon sells only MP3 tracks which you can do pretty much anything you want with. That means Apple has always held an advantage in the selection department. But now it looks like Amazon is catching up.

Both Amazon and Apple launched their DRM-free music stores this year with one major label partner - EMI. Sure, there were also tracks from several minor labels, but the bulk of music that you've actually heard of on Amazon MP3 or iTunes Plus come from EMI. In October, Apple signed deals with several of the bigger minor labels including Sub Pop, Nettwerk, and Beggar's Group and announced that there were 2 million DRM-free tracks available via iTunes.

Now Amazon has announced a deal with Warner Music Group, which brings the number of Amazon MP3 tracks up to 2.9 million.

Tags: amazon, drm, drm-free, itunes, mp3

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