Sony Music Going Copy-Protection-Free

Record Label Finally Bends To Pressure From Downloading Masses, MP3s Coming This Month

(AP)  Sony BMG will start selling music downloads in the copy-protection-free MP3 format later this month in North America, as even the last holdout among the major record labels crumbled to the growing trend.

Sony BMG Music Entertainment said in a statement that some digital albums will be available through a new download service called Platinum MusicPass starting Jan. 15 in the U.S. and late January in Canada.

A Sony Corp. official in Tokyo, requesting anonymity because he is not authorized to speak officially for Sony BMG, confirmed the company's move toward the MP3 format in the U.S., but said that similar moves aren't in the works in Japan and elsewhere.

Music files in the MP3 format can be copied to computers and burned onto CDs without restriction. They can also be played on most digital music players, including Apple Inc.'s iPod, as well as on personal computers.

As a Japanese electronic manufacturer that also has major entertainment businesses, including its music joint venture with Bertelsmann AG, Sony has long resisted the global trend toward MP3 files.

Tokyo-based Sony had been sticking to what the industry calls Digital Rights Management, or DRM, which includes software coding that prevents copying downloaded music but can also frustrate consumers by limiting the type of device or number of computers on which they can listen.

Copy-protected songs sold through Apple's market-leading iTunes Store generally won't play on devices other than its popular iPod digital player, and iPods won't play DRM-enabled songs bought at rival music stores.

Sony has taken a beating in digital players with the booming popularity of the iPod, even in its home Japanese market.

Sony BMG's MusicPass will offer 37 titles at first, including rock, pop and other genres, according to the company. But people must first buy a card available at 4,500 retail outlets across the U.S., including Best Buy Co. and Target Corp. stores, Sony said.

The $12.99 cards will have an identification number on the back, and consumers will be able to visit an Internet site for MusicPass to download the audio files, Sony BMG said.

"We see MusicPass as a great way to bring digital music to the physical retail space. We believe it will have strong appeal for a broad range of customers, and that it will ultimately expand both the digital and physical markets for music," said Thomas Hesse, president of global digital business and U.S. sales at Sony BMG, in a statement.

Last month, Warner Music Group, which had also resisted selling music online without copy protection, agreed to sell its tunes on Amazon.com Inc.'s digital music store.

Universal Music Group and EMI Music Group PLC agreed earlier to sell large portions of their catalogs as MP3 files, as have many independent labels.

"The introduction of MusicPass is an important part of Sony BMG's ongoing campaign to bring its artists' music to fans in new and innovative ways," Hesse said.

One of the albums that will be offered in the new format is Celine Dion's "Taking Chances." Sony BMG's other artists include Bob Dylan, Britney Spears, Jennifer Lopez and Avril Lavigne.

[Wookiee-1138]

It''s about time they realized people would inevitably find ways around *** like that and that they were just alienating normally law-abiding consumers.

[Syndicate]

We should all just stop buying music for a couple years. If we did this these music copanies would die the slow painful death they deserve.

[cyberdjs4]

"Ya know... I still like good ol CDs. I am going to hate to see them go. Still fun to go to the record store and pick up a nicely packaged CD with the booklet and printings etc. imo.
Downloading files just isn''''t the same for me. Oh well..."
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If you care about the music the way the artist did, buying the CD and ripping it as a .wav is the only way to go:

UNCOMPRESSED audio; no lossy compromises; no lossless incompatibilities.
NO DRMs.
NO proprietary format entanglements.

Bigger hard drives are cheap so stop whining about file sizes.
It''s time to take our music back from Apple.

[antoniof123]

You know I used to buy only Sony products my TV, entertainment center and the likes. After the root kit and no help from Sony to remove when I discovered it then spend days searching the Internet to find a way to remove it then have to pay money to get the tools to do so then finally remove it.

No more Sony for my they are clueless and will be out some day soon.

[bwessels]

Obviously the MusicPass ID is linked to the consumer, and encoded in the DRM-free music files. If you share files, you''re identified for lawsuit purposes. Caveat emptor.

[kkcbs]

k;agfer

[elvanion]

Snort...so let me see...we have to schlep down to a brick and mortyar store and "pre-buy" some card in fixed uinits of $13.00 and *then* go back home to actually download the music?

I don''t think so. Does anyone else recall when Sony used to innovate? Only the very odd corporate "mind" could think up a way to drag down the usefulness of online music tot his level.

I''d also scope out their files *very* carefully after the root kit fun.

Oh andf *37* titles offered at first? Hey guys, don''t go overboard here.

Clueless, sadly clueless