The world's second largest music company Sony BMG this month will become the last of the big four recording companies to drop DRM protection schemes from its music downloads.
Sony BMG announced today that beginning on the 15th of January, they will offer gift cards available online and in retail stores that will give consumers the ability to download MP3 music from their library that is free of DRM protection.
Consumers will also be able to download full albums digitally, receive a gift card number and redeem the DRM-free album through their MusicPass website. Currently, only US retail outlets such as Best Buy and Target will carry these gift cards.
"The introduction of MusicPass is an important part of Sony BMG's ongoing campaign to bring its artists' music to fans in new and innovative ways, and to develop compelling new business models," said Thomas Hesse, Sony BMG president.
This type of move is no doubt in direct relation to the recent reports showing that physical media music sales have plummeted while digital music sales have risen.
Companies like Apple have been urging music labels to drop the DRM practices for quite some time in efforts to boost digital sales. With other record labels dropping DRM from their library earlier, it seems obvious that this has had an impact on the market.
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