Amazon (AMZN) launches beta of MP3 music store; Apple (AAPL) cringes

In the latest slap to Apple, Inc.'s (NASDAQ: AAPL) iTunes and iPod platform, Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) has released a "beta" (as in, being tested) version of its 'Amazon MP3' digital music store as of today, accessible through www.amazonmp3.com. While Apple continues to be the largest seller of digital music files on the planet, its recently launch of the 'iTunes Plus' selection was hailed as a larger experiment in the music industry's transition from the CD to the file download. The experiment? Apple removed digital rights management (DRM) copy protection from these iTunes Plus files, making them susceptible to file trading among friends and all over the Internet.

The music industry knows that DRM-free music file downloads are the future, and are relenting from paranoia about internet users everywhere stealing music slowly but surely. In Amazon's case, its new MP3 store features over two million songs from 180,000 artists represented by over 20,000 music labels. And what do you know -- that entire music catalog is being offered in DRM-free MP3 format, making all two million songs virtually universal to every music player from the iPod to in-dash CD players in most new cars. And, without protection, buyers are free to copy and share the files -- without any protection -- to their heart's content. That's the potential mushroom cloud-size problem the music industry execs go to bed with each night.