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MP3Tunes: A DRM-less music store

2 February 2005 13:02 by James "Dela" Delahunty | 3 comments

Lindows founder and former MP3.com CEO, Michael Robertson, is going to announce a new, DRM-less online music store next week called MP3tunes. The advantages of a music store selling DRM free MP3 files include the customers not having to download special music players to play the format and also have no restrictions on copying the files or burning them to CD etc... But could such a music store actually work? The major record labels would seem the most unlikely to license their music to a service that uses no DRM protection on their files.

Robertson is also no stranger to legal troubles, being the founder of MP3.com and recently involved in a legal mess with Microsoft over the "Lindows" operating system. He accuses the other major online music services such as iTunes, Napster and Sony Connect or attempting to push consumers away from the MP3 format and toward proprietary systems, which force consumers to only use certain music players to play the files. While a DRM free online music store does sound more appealing than iTunes or Napster, it will be interesting to see if the service can build a big enough database of music to compete.

Source:
Ars technica

Permalink to this article

MP3.com-like 'locker' feature from MP3Tunes (1 December 2005)

Napster denies its music has been hacked (18 February 2005)

MP3Tunes opens its doors (9 February 2005)

Napster awarded Super Bore title (7 February 2005)

Apple adds 1000 rare Chinese tracks to iTunes (7 February 2005)

Napster takes aim at the iPod (3 February 2005)

Microsoft employees love the iPod! (2 February 2005)

Lindows releases its own Media Center PC (29 January 2003)

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Discuss this article!
scott2453 (Inactive) 2 February 2005 13:20
if this works, i might start buying music again, as long as the prices aren't ridiculous. [ + quote]
punx777 (Senior Member) 2 February 2005 14:13
i dont know about the other music services, but when i downloaded them via walmart.com, it wouldnt play on my mp3 player, but i burnt them to a cd, and re-ripped them to my computer thru WMP.... it removed the drm and then it played on my mp3 player. tell me if this works with other sites [ + quote]
diabolos (Senior Member) 2 February 2005 14:28
That will always work if the software will let you burn an anudio CD (Audio-CDs are made-up of DRM-less PCM tracks). I can vouch for iTunes! [ + quote]