Yeah, erm, well, 7Digital have become the first European download store to offer MP3s from all four majors. Really should have thought of a snappier headline.
The London-based download store announced this morning that they are now making the SonyBMG catalogue available in the digital-rights-management-free MP3 format. With MP3s from EMI, Warner and Universal already available via 7Digital, this means they are now making DRM-free music available from all four major record companies - the only download store in Europe to do so.
As previously reported, SonyBMG were the last of the major record companies to announce they were ending their self-destructive love affair with digital rights management - just in time to participate in the US launch of Amazon's download service at the start of the year, Amazon having insisted from the start it would only sell iPod-compatible MP3s.
The roll out of DRM-free music from all but EMI - who followed the independent sector's lead into MP3 relatively early - has been tediously slow, especially outside the US where Amazon is not currently selling digital music. But major label MP3s are now slowly arriving at other download stores around the UK, giving independent companies like 7Digital a better chance to compete with market leader download store iTunes, who always stopped other retailers from selling DRMed music that worked on the market leader iPod.
7Digital also this morning announced further expansion across and beyond Europe, and the release of a 7Digital API, or application programming interface, which should allow developers large and small to incorporate the 7Digital download service into their own websites and apps, making a cut on any track sales they enable.