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Sony BMG backs down on copy-protection measures

Sony BMG will start selling music downloads free of copy-protection safeguards later this month in North America in response to market trends.

Sony BMG Music Entertainment, the last holdout among the major record labels on the issue, said in a statement that some digital albums would be available through a new download service called Platinum MusicPass starting next Tuesday in the US and later this month in Canada.

A Sony Corp official in Tokyo, requesting anonymity, confirmed the company's move toward the MP3 format in the US, but said that similar moves aren't in the works in Japan and elsewhere.

Music files in MP3 format can be copied to computers and burned onto CDs without restriction. They can also be played on most digital music players and on personal computers.

As a Japanese electronics manufacturer that also has major entertainment businesses, including its music joint venture with Bertelsmann AG, Sony has long resisted the global trend toward MP3 files.

Tokyo-based Sony has stuck to what the industry calls Digital Rights Management, or DRM, which are like software coding that prevents copying downloaded tunes by making some songs incompatible with some digital players.

But CD sales around the world have been on a skid as more people opt to purchase their music online at sites such as Apple's iTunes Music Store.

Sony has taken a beating in digital players with the booming popularity of the iPod, even in its home Japanese market.

Sony BMG's MusicPass will offer 37 titles at first, including rock, pop and other genres, according to the company. But people must first buy a card available at 4,500 retail outlets across the US, including Best Buy, Target and others, it said.

The US$12.99 cards will have a password identification number on the back allowing the owner to download MusicPass audio files, Sony BMG said.

Last month, Warner Music Group, which had also resisted selling music online without copy protections, agreed to sell its tunes on Amazon's digital music store.
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