daverea.com

Remember a few months ago, I mentioned that Amazon was planning to roll out a new music store featuring songs free of rights-restricting DRM technology? Of course you don’t, but that’s OK: it’s why we have links.

As of yesterday, Amazon has officially completed said rollout. I cordially refer you to: AmazonMP3 – a music store that {surprise!} respects your rights as a customer. Music you buy is music you own, and you can do whatever you want with it. Amazon even goes so far as to proudly proclaim the DRM-freeness of their music: “Play-anywhere, DRM-free music downloads.”

We’ve been asking for it, pleading for it, begging for it, out-and-out demanding it, and now they’ve brought it. Now it’s time for those of us who’ve been so loudly extolling the virtues of freedom to put our money where our mouth is. It’s time to go and buy music from Amazon, beceause they’ve got it right.

For my first purchase, I picked up Freedom by Paul McCartney. What I got was a phenomenal-sounding, 289kbps MP3 file that’s music to my ears – I bought it, I paid for it, and I can play it anywhere I choose. I can give it to Kelly as a gift, I can burn it to a CD (as many times as I choose) to play in my car, I can resample it or resize it, I can play it under whatever operating system or on whatever portable device I choose – and that’s the kind of freedom we all deserve for our hard-earned money.

Now go buy music! And post what you bought in the comments, too!