Sony BMG Ready To Sell Some Music Without DRMSony BMG Ready To Sell Some Music Without DRM

Sony BMG will sell some of its music without digital rights management through Amazon.com, according to a new report.

Three of the four major music companies already sell tunes without DRM. BusinessWeek.com reported Friday that Sony will become the last of the major four labels to do away with the copyright protection on at least some of the music it sells.

BusinessWeek.com reported that Sony would promote DRM-free music during the Super Bowl in February and will sell it through Amazon.

It's unclear whether the DRM-free sales will be limited to the promotion or restricted to certain artists, or whether the DRM-free sales would eventually apply to Sony BMG's entire catalog.

Recording companies have had to scrambled for ways to shore up profits in an industry that is rapidly changing. Total album sales last year dropped nearly 15%, while rap album sales dropped a whopping 30%, according to the music industry news site Billboard.com. The same report said that a 45% jump in digital track sales helped offset the loss.

The news that Sony is apparently hashing out plans for DRM-free sales generated plenty of buzz because Sony was heavily criticized in the past for a copyright-protecting rootkit that critics classified as spyware. Later, security experts said that hackers found a way to use the rootkit to access PCs and hide even more malware on consumers' computers.

However, if Sony only plans to put out a small slice of its collection for DRM-free sales, it won't be the first time. In 2006, the company released a Jessica Simpson song without DRM.