While most music industry giants think up ways to fight online piracy, EMI Group has taken a different tact. Rather than make antipiracy efforts a primary concern, the record label said it would offer its titles free of digital rights management software on Apple's iTunes Store.
EMI, one of the four largest record labels in the world, will offer its music without the cumbersome copyright protection system for $1.29 per song, or 30 cents above the copy-protected version.
While DRM presents an ironclad defense mechanism for labels such as EMI, which owns the rights to such super-acts as The Rolling Stones, Coldplay and Norah Jones, it's something of a headache for consumers because protected music cannot be shared across platforms.
"Doing the right thing for the customer going forward is to tear down the walls that impede interoperability," Apple CEO Steve Jobs said.
One group that won't make the jump to DRM-free music just yet is EMI's biggest act, The Beatles.
EMI CEO Eric Nicoli said the label was "working on it," but did not offer a time frame for when the group would let down its DRM guard on iTunes.
