PlasticBoy » DRM

Rhapsody MP3 Store

Ben — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 01:01:56 +0000

Rhapsody has launched a DRM-free MP3 store. This is a big improvement. Previously, their MP3s were locked in a ghetto in the Windows desktop software. Prices seem to be $1 per album higher than Amazon, even for Rhapsody subscribers.

New Nine Inch Nails Album in MP3, CC-licensed

Ben — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 11:28:31 +0000

Nine Inch Nails new 2-hour, instrumental album is now available in a plethora of digital formats, and several physical, collector-friendly formats. And you can get the first nine tracks for free. And it’s all distributed under a Creative Commons license. … Continue reading →

Amazon MP3 Downloader for Linux

Ben — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 19:44:11 +0000

Amazon MP3 now has a Linux version of their album downloader. It’s annoying (and puzzling) that music stores force you to use these proprietary downloaders instead of just pushing you the files in a zip or something, but at least … Continue reading →

Deutsche Grammophon MP3s

Ben — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 16:44:02 +0000

Deutshe Grammophon has launched a web store with 320kbps MP3s. I’m not sure how much of the catalog is available but several selections from NPR’s 50 essentials are there.

Radiohead Web-only Album

Ben — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 13:22:11 +0000

Radiohead’s new album, In Rainbows, is only available as a DRM-free MP3 download from their web site. You get to choose how much to pay for it. Right now the album web site is very slow but they seem to … Continue reading →

Amazon MP3 Store

Ben — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 01:43:51 +0000

I think the jig is up for DRM-ed music. Amazon has launched their MP3 store with 2 million indie and major label tracks, all DRM-free. You can still beat the price at eMusic and Audio Lunchbox but you can’t beat the selection.

Audiobooks at eMusic

Ben — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 12:50:56 +0000

eMusic has launched DRM-free audiobooks at $9.99 for two books. The selection looks pretty good, too.

Rhapsody MP3s

Ben — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 16:22:59 +0000

Rhapsody is now selling DRM-free MP3s from Universal Music Group. Bizarrely, they are only available via the Windows-only desktop software, not the web site. On the plus side, they actually have one listing of all of the available MP3s, unlike the other stores selling the Universal MP3s. You still can’t search the MP3 offerings, though.

Wal-Mart MP3 Downloads

Ben — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 21:08:44 +0000

The Wal-Mart music store is now selling DRM-free downloads for 94 cents per track or $7.88 per album. They are 256 kbps CBR MP3s. Boing Boing reports that they were blocking non-Windows machines but I didn’t have any trouble buying … Continue reading →

Universal Music DRM-free

Ben — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 13:12:49 +0000

Universal is the latest record company to try selling its music with no DRM. The music will be available through several music stores, but not iTunes, on a trial basis through January. Boing Boing says the files will be MP3s but the Times article doesn’t say anything about format.