EMI Group has announced a plan to sell its music through online retailers without copy protection technologies, a significant move that should give consumers greater freedom in the way they can listen to music purchased online.

(See 'Net Insider's Scott Bradner's take on the news)

Apple's iTunes Store will be the first to offer the new-format downloads, which it said will be of a higher sound quality -- but also carry a higher price -- than existing offerings.

EMI Group Chairman Eric Nicoli was joined by Apple CEO Steve Jobs to make the announcement Monday at EMI's headquarters in London. EMI becomes the first of the big music labels to announce such a move, which could create pressure on other labels to follow suit.

EMI said it will release all its digital music repertoire for sale without DRM technologies. Its artists include Gorillaz, Robbie Williams and The Rolling Stones.

Apple will sell individual tracks from EMI artists at twice the sound quality of existing downloads, with DRM removed, at a price of $1.29. The iTunes store will continue to sell tracks with DRM at the existing sound quality for 99 cents. Apple will sell both types of track in the open AAC format. It will sell full albums in the higher sound-quality format, and will offer customers the chance to upgrade existing tracks to the new format for 30 cents per track.

Opposition has been mounting steadily to the industry's use of DRM, which prevents consumers from copying music illegally, but also creates what many see as unfair restrictions on the way consumers can listen to songs they have legally purchased.

Most notably, Apple's proprietary DRM system prevents people who buy songs from its market-leading iTunes store from playing them easily on any music player other than Apple iPods. That restriction has attracted criticism, particularly from regulators in Europe who say it unfairly limits customer choice.

In February Jobs called for an end to the use of DRM on music files in a letter posted on Apple's Web site. Jobs' open letter argued that consumers would benefit because any player would be able to play music from any online retailer.

Reaction to Jobs' call from the major music labels was mixed. Warner Music CEO Edgar Bronfman said the idea of DRM-free music was "without logic or merit."

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.