Apple and EMI strike DRM-free deal

EMI will soon sell digital music with better sound quality and no digital rights management restrictions through Apple's iTunes Store.

The higher-quality, DRM-free music, which can be played on any computer and any digital-audio player, will not replace the copy-protected downloads on the iTunes Store, the music label said at a press conference on Monday. Rather, it will complement the standard music for download through iTunes and will be sold at a premium: 99p per song instead of Apple's standard 79p.

The packed press conference at EMI's London headquarters featured a performance by EMI recording artist The Good, The Bad and The Queen, as well as a guest appearance by Apple chief executive Steve Jobs.

In February, Jobs released an open letter to record companies, encouraging them to abandon DRM restrictions and claiming that Apple had only implemented the controversial system in the first place because the four major record labels would not have otherwise signed up with iTunes.

In the recent past, EMI has put forth some initiatives in digital-music distribution that could be considered somewhat experimental, most notably offering its music catalogue to peer-to-peer services like Mashboxx and iMesh. But until this point, DRM-free music had been largely the domain of services like eMusic, with offerings limited to independent labels.

Last year, iTunes rival Yahoo Music tested the DRM-free waters by offering a Jesse McCartney album and a Jessica Simpson single for sale with no copy protection.