Though the major label had expressed an interest in DRM-free music, few expected the label to take the plunge so soon. Still, today one of the "big four" major labels, the EMI group of England has decided to release completely unencumbered music downloads for sale on popular services like iTunes. Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who originally proposed the idea was on hand for the announcement.

DRM refers to special technologies used to restrict the usage of music to trusted devices only. Previous, a DRM-protected file may only be played on an iPod or a Windows Media device, but could not be moved between the two. As well, retrictions on burning the music to CD, or even playing the songs on a car stereo limited how people could use their purchased music. The idea behind this was ostensibiy to prevent distribution of music through file sharing networks, but this was in sharp contrast to music CDs which boasted higher sound quality and little to no usage restrictions.

Music will be sold for a small premium ($1.29 versus $0.99 - although there is value added by a higher encoding rate of 256 kbps on the DRM-free versions) but will be completely without usage restrictions for the extra fee. The label explained:

Protecting the intellectual property of EMI and our artists is as important as ever, and we will continue to work to fight piracy in all its forms and to educate consumers. We believe that fans will be excited by the flexibility that DRM-free formats provide, and will see this as an incentive to purchase more of our artists' music.

The label first made some advances into unrestricted music with Norah Jones's "Thinking About You", Relient K's "Must've Done Something Right", and Lily Allen's "Littlest Things" but today's announcement is perhaps the most dramatic since major labels first began selling music online in 2003.

That said, independent digital sellers have promoted DRM-free music for some time, with services like eMusic, Audio Lunchbox and Downloadpunk.com selling indie acts' music DRM-free for many years.