DRM-free musicThe Wall Street Journal reports Amazon.com will launch a digital music store later this year, selling all songs in MP3 format with no digital rights management hindering use of the music files. This follows last month’s announcement by EMI, facing falling revenues and large drops in CD sales, that accepted dropping DRM from its music.

“Our MP3-only strategy means all the music that customers buy on Amazon is always DRM-free and plays on any device,” said Jeff Bezos, Amazon CEO & founder (BusinessWire).

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This is a very welcome move by a major industry player, which foretells the death of DRM and the move to a new business model — perhaps something like Canada’s charges on blank media in lieu of hard-to-collect, hard-to-track royalties.

How much longer do you think DRM will last in the music industry, and what business model will replace it? Join the discussion.

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