Amazon
announced this morning that it plans to
launch a music store later this year that will sell unprotected MP3 files
from thousands of record labels. Amazon has licences to sell music from
12,000 record labels, including EMI Group's digital catalogue. Millions of songs
will be sold without Digital Rights Management (DRM) software, allowing - for
example - customers to burn their own CDs freely. Files will be offered in the
standard MP3 format. EM-I Music, which recently announced a similar pact with
Apple's iTunes, is the latest to license its music catalog to the store. Amazon
isn't saying how much it will charge and isn't giving a specific launch date.