Apple's competitors in the digital music world continue to
attempt to capture a bigger piece of the market pie, with a major
concession from Microsoft and a new portable player from
Yahoo.
Microsoft has responded to Apple and EMI's recent announcement of
tracks being sold sans DRM (digital rights management). The PC
giant said on Friday that it expects to sell songs without DRM as
well, sometime in the near future. Microsoft Zune spokeswoman Katy
Asher told the IDG News Service that, "The EMI announcement on
Monday was not exclusive to Apple." Asher added that Microsoft has
been in contact with the record labels "for some time now" about
selling DRM-free tracks for the Zune. "Consumers have made it clear
that unprotected music is something they want," she said. "We plan
on offering it to them as soon as our label partners are
comfortable with it."
Also, last Friday Yahoo and SanDisk released the Sansa Connect, a
new portable MP3 device that downloads music wirelessly from Yahoo
Music's digital subscription service. The Sansa Connect uses Wi-Fi
connectivity to download songs directly into the device. The player
also works in conjunction with Yahoo's Flickr online photo album
service.
