Sony BMG Will Allow Amazon to Sell Its Music

Sony BMG made history Thursday by becoming the fourth and final major label to allow its music to be sold without digital rights management, issuing a announcement that Amazon.com's MP3 store would start carrying music from the label by the end of this month.

This day has been a long time coming. After consumers are able to buy music that plays on a wide variety of equipment, analysts expect the market for digital music and associated devices to expand.

Representatives for both Sony BMG and Amazon confirmed that the files will in fact contain watermarks. However, privacy advocates needn't be alarmed -- the reps also told me that the only information to be included in the watermarks is where they were purchased. In other words, if you mistakenly share the files over the internet, they will not be traceable to you, only to Amazon.