Sainsbury's to sell £99 DRM-free unlimited music

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By Andrew Orlowski • Get more from this author

Posted in Music and Media, 31st October 2008 16:28 GMT

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Supermarket chain Sainsbury's is amongst the retailers who'll be offering you a £99 a year unlimited music service that lets you keep the DRM-free songs you download.

Datz's "Music Lounge" is a riposte to Nokia's Comes With Music bundle, and has several advantages: it's DRM free, and you don't need to buy a Nokia phone. Majors EMI and Warners and top indie the Beggars Group have already signed up to include their music through Datz.

There is a catch, however. Although the songs are not DRM-encumbered - which means they'll play on any device without registering and de-registering - it's Windows only. This is because it uses a USB dongle or CD to validate the user during the download process. It doesn't stop you moving the downloaded songs around any MP3-compatible player, however.

We gather that one major high street phone retailer - we're guessing it's not Carphone Warehouse - will also be selling the £99 bundle. More from the horse's mouth here.

So - sensible pricing for digital music at last? ®

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