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iTunes might be the only online music store that will start selling DRM free music this May, due to its deal with EMI. However this might soon change. Times Online from UK is reporting that Amazon has approached all the major music companies in the past fortnight in a bid to launch DRM free music on its own music store. Amazon wants to launch a digital music download service by May, which is the time when DRM free music will be made available on iTunes.

Last week Yahoo News reported that Universal Music Group had partnered with Amazon to sell DRM free music. This would be historic because with Universal changing lanes, the rest of the industry will rush to follow. However the latest report from Times Online has debunked this speculation as “wide off the mark”.

Amazon is considered to be the only potentially potent competitor to challenge Apple’s iTunes. I personally think the music majors will put their weight behind Amazon’s new service to make it a viable competitor to iTunes, because iTunes by virtue of its market position has started dictating terms to the music majors. This is a situation that the music majors are not used to be in. Apple enjoys a upper hand in its negotiations with the music majors to drop DRM and Reuters is reporting that “although the music companies are publicly commenting that they are just experimenting with dropping DRM, but privately, executives accept that following EMI’s move is only a matter of time”.
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