Sony BMG, the music company, announced Thursday that it would become the fourth and final major label to begin selling digital music on Amazon.com, offering its entire catalog in the MP3 format by the end of the month.
The move by Sony BMG, which represents artists like Bruce Springsteen, the Foo Fighters, Santana and Justin Timberlake, further positions Amazon’s digital music store as a significant rival to the market leader, the iTunes store from Apple.
“This is such an exciting day for us and our customers,” said Bill Carr, vice president for digital music at Amazon. “All four major labels will be part of our service. It means our customers will really have access to all the biggest artists in the world.”
Sony’s embrace of the MP3 format is also the latest blow to the technology known as digital rights management software, or D.R.M., which is intended to prevent consumers from making unauthorized copies of digital material.
In an open letter to the music industry last February, Steven P. Jobs, Apple’s chief executive, said his company would welcome the end of software antipiracy measures and a world where music from any online music store could be played on Apple devices.
Since then, one by one, major music industry figures like Edgar M. Bronfman Jr., Warner Music’s chairman, have supported the notion that D.R.M. was doing more harm than good in the evolving digital music market.
But Sony’s partnership with Amazon.com also underscores the music industry’s gathering effort to nurture an online rival to Apple, which has sold more than three billion songs through its iTunes store. Most music purchased on iTunes can be played only on Apple devices, and Apple insists on selling all single tracks for 99 cents. Amazon, which sells tracks for anywhere from 89 cents to over a dollar, offers the pricing variability the labels want.
“The major music companies feel that Apple’s foot is on their necks, and they would like to get it off,” said Bill Rosenblatt, president of GiantSteps Media Technology Strategies, a consulting firm. “They are looking to destabilize Apple’s dominant share, and they see Amazon as their best shot.”
The Universal Music Group and EMI Group joined the Amazon MP3 music store when it was introduced in September. In December, the Warner Music Group announced that it would make its entire catalog available.
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