The decently popular website Play.com has begun offering high quality, DRM-free MP3 music downloads for the relatively low price of 65p in the UK, and the company says it will start with about one million tracks from EMI and indie labels.
The files, which will be 320kbps, should be playable on most if not all media devices on the market, due to its MP3 format. Apple already offers EMI tracks DRM-free as well but in AAC format which is mainly supported by its iPod line. The price is also cheaper and a Play.com spokesperson has said that “we’re going to be cheaper than [Apple's] iTunes. Whatever price iTunes goes down to, we’ll be looking to go lower.”
In a recent decision, the EU has told Apple it must standardize its prices across Europe and so the tracks are expected to drop from its high 79p current price.
Play.com should also see competition from Amazon MP3 which already undercuts Apple’s track prices and offers DRM-free music from all major labels. So far Amazon MP3 is only in the US but it will hit the UK later this year.
The company says it is talking to the other major labels, “and if one or more had been quicker we might have held off the launch. We think that within the year, the others will be on board.”
Result for: mp3 music
HMV, Woolworths, 7digital, Digitalstores, Tescodigital, Tunetribe, and Play.com have all agreed to promote a new “MP3 compatible” logo that they hope will raise the profile of the open MP3 music format and inform users on what they can do with their DRM-free downloads.
The logo should also help consumers identify legal music stores from P2P.
The Entertainment Retailers Association created the logo and says it will emphasize that MP3s can be played in all media players.
7digital’s Ben Drury added that digital sales “have been booming because users love the freedom of MP3″.
“The beauty of an MP3 file is that once you have bought it, you don’t need to be a computer genius or a lawyer to make it work and you are not locked in to a relationship with a single retailer or hardware manufacturer,” he said.
The BPI is also standing behind the new proposal.
“This logo will not only help give consumers confidence that the music files they are buying will play on a wide range of devices, but will also help them know that they are legal and that artists are getting paid,” noted Geoff Taylor, BPI chief executive.
Result for: mp3 music
Wal-Mart has aggressively lowered the price today of their MP3 music downloads available from the Wal-Mart Music Downloads Store.
The service will now offer tracks for as low as 74 cents, a steep discount against market leaders iTunes and Amazon which offer most tracks for 99 cents.
From what I can see from glancing at the store (Wal-Mart MP3), the top 30 most downloaded tracks are priced at 74 cents while all other tracks cost 94 cents, a 5 cent discount from iTunes.
The new version of the store will also be available to more platforms (it was previously Windows and Internet Explorer only) and will now work on Linux, Macs, and browsers such as Opera, Firefox and Safari.
The move should help Wal-Mart compete with iTunes and Amazon although the retail giant’s catalog is lacking. iTunes currently has 8 million tracks available (with DRM however) and Amazon MP3 has 4.5 million while Wal-Mart only has 3 million.
