EMI, Apple to sell DRM-free music

EMI has done a deal with Apple to sell its music through the iTunes store without digital rights management (DRM) anti-piracy measures.

The tracks will be available on iTunes at twice the sound quality of existing downloads, in a DRM-free format of the user's choice, for €1.29 - more than the current €0.99 that Apple charges.

However, rival records companies voiced concerns about the move, questioning whether EMI had carried out sufficient market research.

Apple's DRM, known as Fairplay, prevents music tracks sold through the store from being distributed freely to unauthorised users. However, Fairplay also limits what customers can do with the tracks; they could only be played on iPods or up to five authorised PCs, locking owners of other music players out of the iTunes market.

The company has come under fire from consumer groups around Europe for using Fairplay in iTunes. In Norway, the restrictions were ruled illegal by the consumer ombudsman, while action was also taken in France in a failed bid to force Apple to licence Fairplay.

However, in an open letter posted on the company's website in February, Apple chief Steve Jobs pushed the blame for DRM on to the labels, and urged consumers to put pressure on the record bosses if they wanted to see anti-piracy measures eliminated from the iTunes tracks.

"If the big four music companies would license Apple their music without the requirement that it be protected with a DRM, we would switch to selling only DRM-free music on our iTunes store. Every iPod ever made will play this DRM-free music," Jobs said.

(Additional reporting - Reuters)