“The world’s largest music company will sell restriction-free music downloads at Amazon.com and other online vendors.”

Universal Music Group announced on Thursday that it will be testing out restriction free music downloads at different online vendors, Amazon to name one. However, Universal Music Group will not be using Apple’s iTunes to test out the restriction free music downloads. Vivendi, a subsidiary, said it will make thousands of its albums and songs available without digital rights management or DRM restrictions to see how the market is affected through demand and piracy.

Why is Universal Music Group shutting out iTune’s music store? “Because it wants to use iTunes as a control group against which to compare its sale of DRM-free downloads elsewhere.” Vendors that will be participating in Universal Music Group’s test run will be Amazon, Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Rhapsody from RealNetworks, Trans World Entertainment, Passalong Networks, Puretracks, and gBox.

[via Forbes]

Tags: Amazon, Best Buy, iTunes, Music Downloads, Free Music Downloads, Universal, Wal-Mart

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