Amazon Launches DRM-Free MP3 Store

Way to go, Amazon. Digital Rights Management has long been the bane of media lovers everywhere that want to enjoy their legal digital content. If I PAY to download a song, shouldn't I have the right to play it on any device I want? With iTunes you can only play songs on an iPod. With Zune you have to buy songs from the Zune Marketplace. And what happens when I change brands of MP3 players? Or if I want to back up my music on a CD?
Now Amazon changes all that.

“Amazon MP3 is an all-MP3, DRM-free catalog of a la carte music from major labels and independent labels, playable on any device, in high-quality audio, at low prices,”“This new digital music service has already been through an extensive private beta, and today we’re excited to offer it to our customers as a fully functional public beta. We look forward to receiving feedback from our customers and using their input to refine the service.
Every song and album on Amazon MP3 is available exclusively in the MP3 format without digital rights management (DRM) software. This means that Amazon MP3 customers are free to enjoy their music downloads using any hardware device, including PCs, Macs™, iPods™, Zunes™, Zens™, iPhones™, RAZRs™, and BlackBerrys™; organize their music using any music management application such as iTunes™ or Windows Media Player™; and burn songs to CDs. said Bill Carr, Amazon.com Vice President for Digital Music.
Most songs are priced from 89 cents to 99 cents, with more than 1 million of the 2 million songs priced at 89 cents. The top 100 best-selling songs are 89 cents, unless marked otherwise. Most albums are priced from $5.99 to $9.99. The top 100 best-selling albums are $8.99 or less, unless marked otherwise.
Every song on Amazon MP3 is encoded at 256 kilobits per second, which gives customers high audio quality at a manageable file size.

Wow! Thats higher quality than I ripped my own CDs at!
Bummer note, you can't use any Amazon gift certificates you have for downloads.
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