EMI AND APPLE TO OFFER DRM-FREE SONGS

From USA Today:

Apple and EMI Music shook up the music industry Monday by announcing plans to sell more than 150,000 digital songs without copy protection.

The songs — from Coldplay, Norah Jones, and other artists on the giant EMI record label — can be freely copied. They'll play on many different kinds of music players and can be easily burned to CD.

But music-lovers will pay more for them. iTunes, Apple's digital music store, plans to offer the songs in May for $1.29 each. Standard iTunes songs, which will still be available, cost 99 cents.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs says other record labels will be forced to follow EMI's lead. "I expect to have 2.5 million to 5 million (copy protection-free) songs by the end of the year," Jobs says.