Mora (music store)

Mora (モーラ, mōra^?) is an online music and video store for the Japanese market. It is integrated into the Japanese version of Sony's SonicStage software. Music is distributed primarily in Sony's ATRAC3 format with OpenMG DRM, though some music is also now offered in Microsoft's Windows Media format and videos are offered exclusively in WMV.

Mora is operated by Label Gate Co., Ltd., a joint venture of 17 Japanese record companies including Sony Music Entertainment Japan, Avex Group, and Universal Music Japan.^[1]

Pricing

Pricing for individual songs sold on Mora ranges from between ￥150 and ￥210, depending on a variety of factors, including popularity of the track and its age. Most videos are priced around ￥400.

Purchasing an entire album typically results in a lower cost per song. For example, Hikaru Utada's album ULTRA BLUE is available for ￥2000. Purchasing the songs individually costs ￥2600.

DRM

Music purchased from Mora and encoded in Sony's ATRAC3 format uses OpenMG DRM. Most songs can be burned to CD or transferred to a compatible portable device a set number of times, though many labels have recently begun to restrict the ability of users to burn popular tracks to disc. For example, the single A Perfect Sky by Bonnie Pink can be transferred to up to three portable devices and burned to CD up to ten times.

Availability Outside Japan

Users outside Japan can access the Mora website and software and listen to song previews, but are generally unable to purchase music.

Prior to early 2006, Mora used only IP address filtering to prohibit users not based in Japan from purchasing music through the site. This could be bypassed by using a proxy server with an allowed IP.

Since early 2006, Mora has implemented an additional layer of filtering, which rejects credit cards not issued by a Japanese bank regardless of the user's IP address. The IP filtering also remains in place. To date, no way has been found to purchase music from Mora using a credit card issued outside Japan.

Methods of purchasing music via Mora without a Japanese-issued credit card exist, but are far from ideal. These typically involve having someone in Japan purchase a prepaid WebMoney or Mora music card and then using this card as payment in lieu of a credit card.

mora win

mora win (モーラ ウィン, mōra win^?) is another music store operated by same company. It is using Windows Media Audio codec and Windows Media DRM encryption, and integrated into the Japanese version of Microsoft's Windows Media Player 11 as "recommended store".^[2]

See also

• Sony Connect
• LISMO

References

1. ^ "Label Gate Company profile" (in Japanese). Label Gate. http://www.labelgate.co.jp/profile/index.html. Retrieved 2008-10-17. 
2. ^ Jōji Meguro (2007-10-02). "レーベルゲート、Media Playerと操作体系を一体化した「mora win」の新サービス" (in Japanese). CNET Japan. http://japan.cnet.com/news/media/story/0,2000056023,20357789,00.htm. Retrieved 2008-10-17. 

External links

• Mora website
• mora win website