For people that prefer to purchase their music without DRM, DRMFree.org offers a single place to search. Instead of guessing and hunting for where you might find music, or settling for DRM locked files, one search will show you where the music you seek is available.


DRMFree.org was born out of a desire to buy digital music without the restrictions of Digital Rights Management (DRM). There are many sites online that sell music without DRM, including record labels and independent artists selling their own music. Until DRMFree.org there was no central location to search these sites, often making locating music without DRM a long and difficult process. Now you have one place to find music you want in the format you want while supporting artists and labels that have elected to not restrict the music they sell.



The list of sites that are searched does not yet include DMusic. Hopefully someone'll see this and get that changed.


Here's the site: DRMFree.Org | about

Hopefully these links actually work:
[link="http://www.drmfree.org/"]drmfree.org[/link]
[link="http://www.drmfree.org/about.html"]about[/link]

I sent an email to the people running the site, and they responded that they'd like to include DMusic in the list of sites searched.

Bah. This?

drmfree.org
about

I sent an email to them on Oct. 3rd about www.metaltracks.com (an extreme metal DRM free mp3 site run by Earache records) which they said they would add to the database, but they haven't done that yet either, so don't get your hopes up if you expect it to be fast.

I would imagine it takes some time; whoever's running the DRMFree site would have to work with the people who run any sites to be added in order to work out a way to search that site's database. Not something you can just throw together in an hour.

Thread hijack!

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/states/california/northern_california/15744239.htm

Shipments in U.S. of non-digital albums down in first half of '06
ALEX VEIGA
Associated Press

LOS ANGELES - Shipments of CDs, DVDs and other non-digital music formats bound for U.S. retail outlets were down in the first half of 2006, but the decline was partially offset by online and mobile music sales, the recording industry's trade group said Thursday.

Record companies shipped a total of 277.6 million units - CDs, DVDs, vinyl records, cassettes and other physical formats - to retailers, record clubs and other outlets. The figure represents a 15.7 percent decline from the year-ago period, according to the Recording Industry Association of America.

The estimated retail value of the non-digital inventory shipped in the first six months of this year was $4.1 billion, a 15 percent drop from the same period last year, the RIAA said.

The RIAA figures reflect retailers pulling back on orders for CDs and other non-digital products as sales of CDs have sagged in recent years.

About 435 million albums, including those in digital formats, were sold in the U.S. in the first nine months of 2006, down from about 439 million in the same period in 2005, according to Nielsen SoundScan. The firm tracks retail purchases, while the RIAA figures for non-digital formats represent units shipped to retail outlets.

The good news for record companies is demand for music in digital formats - including Internet downloads and music used to customize mobile phones - has been growing.

U.S. sales of digital singles rose 71.3 percent to 286.3 million in the first half of the year, while the number of digital albums sold more than doubled to 12.3 million, according to the RIAA figures.

The average number of subscribers to online music services was up 45.1 percent to 1.9 million, the RIAA said.

In all, digital revenues during the period, excluding mobile content, totaled $417.2 million, an increase of 86.6 percent.

Purchases of music content for mobile phones, including master ringtones and full-length song downloads, soared 97.5 percent to 144.3 million. The total revenue from mobile formats nearly doubled to $356.4 million, the RIAA said.

I certainly like the idea.