Sony to sell unrestricted music downloads on Amazon

NEW YORK -- When sales begin this month, Amazon will be the only place where consumers can download songs from all of the major music companies that will work on virtually any computer or portable player.

The initiative "is the newest element of our ongoing campaign to bring our music to fans wherever they happen to be," Thomas Hesse, who's president of Sony BMG's global digital business and U.S. sales, said in a statement.

Sony BMG's hitmakers include Avril Lavigne, Jennifer Lopez, Bruce Springsteen, Carrie Underwood, Bob Dylan, Kenny Chesney, Daughtry, Britney Spears, and Barry Manilow.

The deal gives Amazon a leg up on iTunes in reaching consumers who want songs free of digital rights management (DRM) restrictions.

Prior to the Sony BMG announcement, Amazon had deals with Universal Music, EMI, and Warner Music to offer their songs DRM-free. EMI is the only major that has a similar arrangement with Apple.

And while Amazon allows companies to put different prices on different recordings, it says that the 100 best-selling songs typically sell for 89 cents apiece. Apple has a uniform price of 99 cents on comparable releases.

Sony BMG first demonstrated its willingness to sell digital downloads without DRM this week. It announced a plan to sell cards, similar to gift cards, that would enable buyers to download an entire album without the restrictions.

That decision, and the pact with Amazon, represent a remarkable turnaround for the No. 2 music company.

Until recently, it tried to rally the music industry to fight online piracy by only offering digital downloads in formats that couldn't be easily or endlessly copied. Sony BMG angered many consumers in 2005 with a short-lived effort to add anti-copy software to its CDs.

But companies changed their tune as music sales plummeted.