Sony BMG to Sell DRM-Free Music Downloads Through Stores

Sony BMG Music Entertainment will offer tracks in MP3 format, without DRM, from 15 January in the US and from late January in Canada. The move is far from the all-digital service offered by its rivals, though. To obtain the Sony-BMG tracks, would-be listeners will first have to go to a retail store to buy a Platinum MusicPass, a card containing a secret code, for a suggested retail price of $12.99. Once they have scratched off the card’s covering to expose the code, they will be able to download one of just 37 albums available through the service, including Britney Spears’ Blackout and Barry Manilow’s The Greatest Songs of the Seventies