Amazon MP3 to launch internationally

SEATTLE Amazon.com is taking its digital music store beyond the U.S. this year.

The company announced Sunday that it will begin an international rollout of Amazon MP3, its DRM-free MP3 digital music store, in 2008. The store launched in September 2007 in the United States, and grew to include more than 3.3 million songs from more than 270,000 artists, and can be listened to on any hardware device.

“We have received thousands of e-mails from Amazon customers around the world asking us when we will make Amazon MP3 available outside of the U.S. They can’t wait to choose from the biggest selection of high-quality, low-priced DRM-free MP3 music downloads which play on virtually any music device they own today or will own in the future,” said Bill Carr, Amazon.com vp of digital music. “We are excited to tell those customers today that Amazon MP3 is going international this year.” 

The company is not disclosing a specific launch timeline for individual Amazon international Web sites.