The crew over at Amazon.com are really shaking things up. Earlier this month, they released a redesigned home page. Compared to this, that was nothing.

Today, they launched Amazon MP3, an online music store that is completely DRM-free. At the time of launch, they are offering over two million songs. Most songs sell at $0.99, though there are some going for $0.89, and the occasional long song might cost a bit more. All songs are offered in MP3 format only, and encoded at 256kbs.

Given Amazon’s existing user base, the lack of DRM, and the comparable prices, this could be a bad sign for the future of Apple’s iTunes store. Adding insult to injury, Amazon offers software to download purchased songs seamlessly into the iTunes software. I can imagine no reason why someone would continue to buy songs on iTunes.

The DRM is the thing that has always stopped me from buying on iTunes. Sure, it’s no problem playing on my Mac and my iPod, but if I want to play my purchased song on my PC, or take it to work, or use it in my car’s MP3 player, I’m out of luck with songs purchased on iTunes. But that’s not the case with Amazon…