Seattle - Online retail giant Amazon.com on Tuesday announced the beta launch of Amazon MP3, a digital music store that offers over 2 million DRM-free tracks, more than a million of which are priced at 89 cents.

London - Digital music service 7digital announced on Tuesday that it will be the first to offer DRM-free MP3 downloads of 24 Rolling Stones albums from major label EMI Music. The month-long exclusive for 7digital will see records dating from 1971's "Sticky Fingers" made available as 320 kbps MP3 albums at a promotional price of about $11 each, rising to about $16 after the promotion.

Brisbane, Calif. - Retail giant Wal-Mart on Tuesday announced the launch of DRM-free MP3 song and album downloads from its online store, initially featuring hundreds of thousands of tracks from Universal Music and EMI Music.

London - Following the major label's announcement yesterday that it would provide DRM-free music for sale on retail giant Amazon.com's forthcoming digital music store, EMI Music said that it has additionally signed deals to provide its artists' tracks free of digital rights management to other European retailers. EMI will offer its catalog to VirginMega in France, as well as to Scandinavian services including Telenor, Musicbrigade, Inprodicon, Basepoint Media, Aspiro and Paragallo.

Seattle - Amazon.com on Wednesday announced plans to launch a digital music store later this year that will sell millions of songs from more than 12,000 record labels in the unprotected MP3 format.

London - Major record label EMI Music announced that it has acquired former Beatle Paul McCartney's entire solo career catalog, which it plans to make available for the first time through digital services free of digital rights management (DRM) protections. The deal includes McCartney's releases with the band Wings, and his newest, "Memory Almost Full," which is set for release on June 4.

New York - Mobile entertainment distributor Thumbplay announced on Wednesday an agreement with major label EMI Music, to sell ringtones from EMI artists direct to consumers. The service will offer both subscription and a la carte purchase options, with ringtones delivered over-the-air and charges billed to a consumer's mobile bill.