Buying music downloads, hassle-free

In the news: Amazon has promised to launch an MP3-only, DRM-free music store later this year. Last month, Apple announced it was dipping its toe in the water of DRM-free downloads at its iTunes Music Store. Amazon's plans are much bigger, promising selections from "more than 12,000 record labels," but with pricing and other details remaining vague, we'll have to wait and see how it actually shapes up. Here at Zong of the Week, we see DRM-free, paid downloads as the next best thing to actually free music. DRM, which stands for "digital rights management," is the technology that keeps you from using the downloaded music you've paid for. It's the extra hassle that they give you as reward for paying to download the songs legally instead of copying it for free from a friend. (And when I say "reward," I'm being sarcastic.) For example, Apple's DRM makes it difficult for you to listen to your iTMS songs on any MP3 player except Apple's iPod. Removing DRM is a step in the right direction. Keep an eye on Amazon's plans. And I wouldn't be surprised if some other big names jumped on the DRM-free bandwagon this summer.