Well, well… as discussed previously, here comes the next phase of the online music scene: open competition among the digital music retailers.

One can only hope this heralds a new age in online music. The investment in Amiestreet.com by Amazon is very encouraging. The MP3 Lunatics applaud this development and hope that Amazon doesn’t try to change the following:

• Amie Street sells MP3s, DRM free!
• Amie Street’s music is not all the same price.
• Amie Street utilizes free music to initiate a music sale.
• Amie Street is fun.
• Amie Street focuses on music discovery.
• Amie Street is artist friendly and inclusive.
• Amie Street involves fans. They are more than just ciphers for sales charting.

Maybe EMI - the most enlightened of the RIAA behemoths - will add some of its content to this retail outlet. Amie Street seems to be doing nothing that could cause Warner’s legal department to reasonably sue them.

So my next question for the major labels is: Are you going to embrace this new 2007 music retail landscape or continue to be stooges for Steve Jobs?