This will be of interest to anyone who downloads music:

Digital Rights Management Free EMI Catalog Will Be Available From Amazon.com

EMI Music announced that it has reached an agreement with Amazon.com that will enable them to offer EMI’s entire digital catalog, which is available in a higher quality, DRM-free premium download format, for sale in Amazon’s new digital music store, which the retailer separately announced today it will launch later this year in the U.S. The Amazon digital music store will exclusively offer tracks and albums as MP3 files free of digital rights management (DRM) restrictions. EMI is the very first major music company to make its entire digital music catalogue available for sale as part of Amazon’s new digital music initiative.

"Amazon.Com is synonymous with a great consumer experience, and they have become an important retail partner of ours. I applaud Jeff Bezos and Amazon.com for making this move. Amazon.com’s deep understanding of consumers and vast knowledge of music paves the way for a smooth entry into the digital arena, said EMI CEO Eric Nicoli. “Their arrival in the digital music market will offer even more consumer choice and will be a big advance in addressing the lack of interoperability which has frustrated many music fans."

Amazon Founder/CEO Jeff Bezos stated, "Our MP3-only strategy means all the music that customers buy on Amazon is always DRM-free and plays on any device. We’re excited to have EMI joining us in this effort and look forward to offering our customers MP3s from amazing artists."

Also Virginmega in France has signed up to retail the DRM-free higher-sound-quality downloads, and in Scandinavia, EMI has reached agreements with Tlenor, Musicbrigade, Inprodicon Basepoint Media, Aspiro and Paragallo, all of who will begin selling the new premium product in the coming months.