Amazon to take on Apple and iTunes?

Here is an interesting story from today’s Wall Street Journal about Amazon.com as relates to portable entertainment. Apparently, as the Journal reports, Amazon is in talks with a number of music companies about launching a digital music service which could seriously give Apple’s iTunes a run for its money.

The service, which the WSJ said could be launched as soon as this summer, is a logical stretch for the largest online retailer out there. It is interesting to note that one of the features of the digital music service mentioned in this article is “Amazon-branded portable music players”. Amazon of course declined to comment on the story but the Journal reports, according to people familiar with the matter, that the talks are “advanced” and also that music executives “privately welcome Amazon’s plans”.