iTunes may be cool. It has the brand name. It leads the market for online digital music sales by a large margin. But AmazonMP3 has something iTunes does not: all four major record labels selling music free of copy protection, or digital rights management.

Sony BMG, the world’s second-largest record label, will start selling DRM-free music on AmazonMP3 at the end of the month, confirming reports that surfaced last week. And, best of all, fans of Sony BMG artists like Britney Spears and Bruce Springsteen will not have to drive to brick-and-mortar stores like Best Buy and Target to purchase Platinum MusicPass cards just to download music free of copy protection.

With Sony BMG now joining the other big labels, EMI, Universal Music Group, and Warner, AmazonMP3 has a clear advantage over iTunes for consumers who want the songs they purchase to be playable on virtually any computer and portable music device.

I have to ask: Isn’t the point of buying music online not having to go to the store?

As expected, Sony BMG will begin selling DRM-free music, but in an odd, online-offline, hybrid manner. On Jan. 15, Sony BMG will begin selling MP3s without copy protection, but here’s the rub.

Consumers must go to a bricks-and-mortar retail store like Best Buy or Target to buy a Platinum MusicPass card. The card contains a scratch-off unique PIN — not unlike ones used by iTunes and other online services — that will unlock the chosen album for download at musicpass.com.

The MusicPass cards will retail for $12.99, while an “expanded” card will sell for $19.99 and include an additional album from the artist’s back catalog.

With the death of copyright-protected digital music imminent, several questions come to mind. Chief among them: What’s next for iTunes? And does anybody want to pay for music anymore?

As last100 reported earlier today (via BusinessWeek), Sony BMG is set to become the last of the four major record labels to at least, in part, scrap digital rights management, or DRM. Sony BMG now joins rivals EMI, Universal Music Group, and Warner in offering some of their catalogue DRM-free, meaning consumers can play the purchased music on any MP3-enabled device.

Already the Web is cheering: Ding Dong the Music DRM Witch is Dead! And RIP DRM. But, truth be told, DRM ain’t dead yet. Sony BMG and UMG are in an experimental stage, with results to be reviewed.

Even though DRM isn’t completely dead, the prediction of its demise in 2008 is still a good one. It’s coming. The questions are when and in what form.