Mora 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.
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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, Utada Hikaru'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.
