Amazon MP3 Adds Warner Music Group Catalog

Amazon on Thursday announced the release of new music on its Amazon MP3 music download service, through an agreement with Warner Music Group (WMG). Now users can download Digital Rights Management (DRM)-free music from artists including the Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Eagles, Led Zeppelin, Madonna and Metallica.

Amazon bills its MP3 service as "the Earth's biggest selection of a la carte DRM-free MP3 music downloads." At about 2.9 million songs, Amazon MP3's catalog is less than half the size of Apple's iTunes Store, although many of the songs offered through the iTunes Store employ DRM protection.

The songs offered through Amazon MP3 play on almost all digital music players, including Apple's iPods. And while the WMG artists on Amazon MP3 are available via the iTunes Store as well, Amazon indicates that it will make available WMG album bundles containing exclusive tracks.

Most songs offered through Amazon MP3 are priced from 89 to 99 cents, with most albums priced from $5.99 to $9.99. All music is encoded at 256 Kbps.