EMI pulls plug on DRM

EMI is to sell DRM-free tracks via Apple's iTunes store

EMI has confirmed rumours that it is to drop digital rights management from some online music downloads.

The company is to sell DRM-free tracks via Apple's iTunes store, which will also come with better sound quality, albeit at a cost of increased file size.

The new tracks will cost 99p, compared to the current 79p, and iTunes customers will be able to upgrade their existing music for 20p per track.

"Our goal is to give consumers the best possible digital music experience," said Eric Nicoli, chief executive at EMI Group.

"By providing DRM-free downloads, we aim to address the lack of interoperability which is frustrating for many music fans.

"We believe that offering consumers the opportunity to buy higher quality tracks and listen to them on the device or platform of their choice will boost sales of digital music."

EMI is keeping DRM for music rental systems such as Napster, and said that Apple's iTunes will be the only store selling the tracks at launch.

Carl Gressum, senior analyst at Ovum, said: " What is key is that Apple is making a statement to the market is that it is not basing its business on DRM.

"Most consumers are happy with something that is good enough within the user experience, so the audio size increase is interesting.

"It is good news for Apple, since the more space the tracks take up, the faster the media player's space will run out so people will have to upgrade, and that's where Apple makes its money."

Apple is building in functionality so that users can upgrade their entire libraries to the larger, DRM-free tracks with a single mouse click. All EMI videos will have DRM stripped out at no extra charge.

"We are going to give iTunes customers a choice: the current versions of our songs for the same 99c price, or new DRM-free versions of the same songs with even higher audio quality and the security of interoperability for just 30c more," said Apple chief executive Steve Jobs.

"We think our customers are going to love this, and we expect to offer more than half of the songs on iTunes in DRM-free versions by the end of this year."