Sony set to join post-DRM age

Posted on 4 Jan 2008 at 14:09

Sony BMG may be about to join the three other major record companies and strip DRM from some, if not all, of its music downloads.

According to Business Week, Sony is looking at new online music outlets, possibly including social networking sites such as Facebook or MySpace. The company is expected to release further details within the month.

Warner Music announced in late December that it would sell DRM-free songs through Amazon's digital music store, joining Universal Music and EMI. Only EMI allows all stores, including iTunes, to sell unrestricted downloads.

DRM has been a thorny issue for Sony in the past, which earlier in the year admitted to secretly embedding potentially damaging anti-piracy software in some of its CDs. By contrast, it is now providing information on circumventing Windows Media DRM so songs purchased on music stores such as Napster and Yahoo Music can be played on iPods.

Sony had not responded for comment at the time of going to press.

Author: Stuart Turton & Simon Aughton

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