Sources in the London Times say Amazon has approached all the major labels “in the past fortnight” and stated its desire to launch an online music store by May. Times said the store would offer “unprotected MP3s”. Billboard last week reported on Amazon’s moves to enter the emergent space which will already be occupied by Apple and EMI’s new DRM-free repertoire, also due in May. Times joins the dots and suggests EMI tunes would logically be amongst Amazon’s first offerings.

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But Times pressed undo on one of Billboard’s assertions: “Speculation that Vivendi’s Universal Music was already signed up to test classical MP3 downloads is understood to be wide off the mark.” It adds: “Amazon’s efforts have been held back by various problems. It originally wanted to launch its own music player to rival the iPod in tandem with the store and held discussions with manufacturers, but these failed to develop successfully.” Yahoo already launched a music player tied to its download store this month; Amazon’s delays may suggest it is playing catch-up.