Sony and Universal Music cut cost of digital music

MP3 for you and me...

Universal Music and Sony have cut the price of digital music downloads and said they plan to add features which will allow customers to burn CDs and transfer downloads to portable devices. Universal Music said it will offer tens of thousands of tracks from both new releases and back catalogues through its partnership with digital rights management firm Liquid Audio. Users will pay 99 cents to download singles and $9.99 for albums. Sony which already offers digital downloads through its partnership with RioPort said it will drop its download charges from $1.99 to $1.49 per track. Sony has recently formed Pressplay, a music file-swapping venture with Vivendi, while rival record labels AOL Time Warner, Bertelsmann and EMI have teamed up on MusicNet.