In yet another epic thump to the iTunes Store's digital gonads, all four major labels are now giving Play.com DRM-free MP3 files for sale through its download store.
Play launched its music download offering back in February with the backing of just one major label -- EMI -- and a bunch of independents. This is still all iTunes can offer in DRM-free format.
As Play has offered for a while, the top 100 songs on the store will be offered for 65p per track, with some albums as low as £4.99, including the brand new Oasis album, Katy Perry's debut, and albums that aren't rumoured to cause cancer because they're so bad.
But Play.com isn't the first to achieve this admirable milestone. 7digital was the first European store to offer MP3s from all major labels as of a few weeks ago. Also, in the US, Amazon's MP3 store has had all the majors on board, sans-copy protection, for months.
Obviously, MP3s are the format of choice for the majority of consumers when it comes to downloading, as they'll play on any MP3 player, any iPod, any phone, and can be freely burnt to CD for use in other music systems, just like a normal CD.
iTunes still restricts the majority of its downloads solely to iPods, although CDs can be burnt a limited number of times, and safe to say El Jobs won't be busting out the balloons, absinthe and hookers on hearing the news that Play.com's beating them at the game he pioneered. -Nate Lanxon
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