Amazon Music
 |
|
| Opened | September 25, 2007 |
|---|---|
| Owner | Amazon.com, Inc. |
| Pricing model | Variable |
| Platforms | Windows, OS X, iOS, Android, FireOS |
| Format | MP3 @ 256 kbit/s VBR |
| Restrictions | None |
| Catalogue | 29,157,740 songs |
| Preview | 30 Seconds |
| Availability | United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Austria, Switzerland, Japan, Italy, Spain, Netherlands |
| Website | www |
Amazon Music (previously Amazon MP3) is an online music store and music locker operated by Amazon.com. Launched in public beta on September 25, 2007, in January 2008 it became the first music store to sell music without digital rights management (DRM) from the four major music labels (EMI, Universal, Warner Music, and Sony BMG), as well as many independents. All tracks were originally sold in 256 kilobits-per-second variable bitrate MP3 format without per-customer watermarking or DRM; however, some tracks are now watermarked. Licensing agreements with recording companies restrict the countries in which music can be sold: Amazon.com sells music only to US customers while Amazon.co.uk sells music only to UK customers.
After the United States, Amazon MP3 was launched in the United Kingdom on December 3, 2008, in Germany on April 1, 2009, and in France on June 10, 2009. The German edition has been available in Austria and Switzerland since December 3, 2009. The Amazon MP3 store was launched in Japan on November 10, 2010. The Spanish and Italian editions were launched on October 4, 2012.
Amazon launched Amazon Cloud Player as an extension to Amazon MP3 store in the United States on March 29, 2011.
At launch, Amazon offered "over 2 million songs from more than 180,000 artists and over 20,000 labels, including EMI Music and Universal Music Group", to customers located in the United States only. In December 2007 Warner Music announced that it would offer its catalog on Amazon MP3 and in January 2008, Sony BMG followed suit. The current catalog is 29.1 million songs.
In January 2008, Amazon announced plans to roll Amazon MP3 out "internationally". Amazon limits international access by checking users' credit card issued country. The first international version was launched December 3, 2008 in the United Kingdom. German, French, Japanese, Italian and Spanish versions of the store followed.
...
Wikipedia