EMI to sell iTunes songs without copy protection

Published Tuesday, April 3, 2007

LONDON (AP) - Breaking from the rest of the recording industry, EMI Group said yesterday it will begin selling songs online that are free of copy-protection technology through Apple Inc.’s iTunes Store. The deal, however, doesn’t include music from the label’s biggest act, the Beatles.

ITunes customers will soon be able to buy songs by the Rolling Stones, Norah Jones, Coldplay and other top-selling artists for $1.29, or 30 cents more than the copy-protected version. The premium tunes also will be offered in a higher quality than the 99-cent tracks.

EMI Chief Executive Eric Nicoli said the Beatles music catalog is excluded from the deal but that the company was "working on it."

The announcement followed calls by Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs earlier this year for the world’s four major record companies, including EMI Group PLC, to start selling songs online without copy-protection software.

The technology, known as digital rights management, or DRM, is designed to combat piracy by preventing unauthorized copying or sharing, but it also can be a consumer headache. The DRM used by Apple does not work with competing services or devices, meaning that consumers can only download songs from iTunes to work on their computers or iPods.

Some analysts suggest that lifting the software restrictions could boost sales of online music, which account for around 10 percent of global music sales.

Jobs said he planned to offer around half of all music in the iTunes store under the premium package by the end of the year.

The iTunes music store will begin offering EMI’s catalog without DRM software starting next month, he said.