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Amazon.com has picked up the third major record label to let the online music retailer sell MP3 songs without digital rights management (DRM) schemes attached.

Warner Music Group recently announced that Amazon customers could now buy and download songs from its artists, which include Matchbox Twenty, Rob Thomas, Jewel, Kid Rock, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Big & Rich and Faith Hill.

Amazon launched its music download service in September and now offers 2.9 million songs without copy prevention technology, including tracks from Warner, EMI, Universal, and 33,000 independent record labels

Warner is the third of the four major music corporations to reconsider its use of so-called DRM and offer its catalog in the unrestricted MP3 format. Sony BMG Music Entertainment has continued to hold out, though it is expected to experiment with selling MP3's through a promotion early next year.

The shift by Warner Music is another step in the decline of copy-protection software, which has led to consumer confusion over the jumble of incompatible schemes governing the use of digital music players and downloaded songs.

In February, after Apple's chief executive, Steven Jobs, called on the major record companies to abandon DRM, Edgar Bronfman, Warner's chairman, retorted that since movies and games carry copy protection, the notion of withdrawing it from music was "completely without logic or merit."

The recording industry had argued that DRM itself is not what makes some songs incompatible with some digital players, but the fact that there are different versions of DRM in use. The companies suggested Apple, whose iPod outsells all other media players, should license its DRM technology to other music services.

EMI Group broke ranks with the other major labels and agreed to sell unprotected music through iTunes in April. Now, some music executives are privately backing the idea of dropping the software from music sold through virtually every service except iTunes, in order to strengthen Apple's rivals and potentially diminish Jobs's advantage.

Industry executives also expect initiatives such as iTunes Plus and Amazon MP3, which remove the DRM locks placed on music downloads by an earlier generation of music services, will encourage consumers to buy more music.

"Consumers want flexibility with respect to what they can do with music once they purchase it, and we want them to have that flexibility, which is why we're pleased to offer our artists' music on Amazon MP3," noted Michael Nash, senior vice president of digital strategy and business development for Warner Music Group.

With the locks off the music, Apple also faces the prospect of a price war with Amazon, which offers 1 million of its MP3 tracks for just USD 0.89, compared to the USD 0.99 Apple charges for all its tracks. Before the launch of Amazon MP3, Apple also charged a USD 0.30 premium for tracks in the iTunes Plus format, which is recorded at a higher quality than the DRM-encumbered versions. Other Amazon tracks sell for USD 0.99.