Update: I eventually got hold of Orange in France, who told me they had incorrectly translated their press release to English, overstating the DRM-free features. Though the release states tracks “can be freely transferred to other digital media such as music players”, the offering in fact uses Windows Media DRM over OMA files (for mobile) and WMA files (for PC). Orange’s announcement omitted the fact that users can only transfer a track up to five times.
Original: Orange has launched its own unlimited-music subscription service, Musique Max, in France. With a million-plus repertoire from the four majors and two indies, it’s essentially the same kind of offering already seen from the likes of Napster (NSDQ: NAPS), Jamba and Omnifone – downloads can go to both PCs over broadband and mobile handsets over the air, and are auto-synchronized using Orange Mobile Player.
What’s new – apparently, no DRM: “All titles downloaded using Musique Max can be kept for an unlimited period and freely transferred to other digital media such as music players and compatible mobiles.” Though it’s not clear yet which format Musique Max uses, so there’s some question over this claim. Customers can pay the