Apple to sell copy protection-free songs

By Yinka Adegoke

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Apple Inc has reached a deal with major record labels to sell digital songs without the copy protection software that had prevented fans from sharing music bought from its iTunes store, the maker of the iPod and iPhone said on Tuesday.

The company also said it would start selling over-the-air download songs for its popular iPhone 3G and introduce variable pricing at the iTunes Music Store, with songs priced at 69 cents, 99 cents and $1.29 starting in April.

Phil Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of marketing, announced the long-expected changes at the Macworld Expo trade show in San Francisco.

Copy protection software, also known as digital rights management, has proved a controversial topic with music fans and record labels alike.

DRM was designed to prevent fans from illegally sharing digital downloads on file-sharing services. But it also prevented many fans from moving their own songs between devices and became increasingly unpopular.

Apple founder Steve Jobs publicly called on major record labels to drop DRM in February 2007. But the labels had resisted his call even though iTunes is the world's biggest digital music retailer, with more 6 billion songs sold since 2003.

The labels had agreed to allow other retailers, including Amazon.com and Napster, to sell DRM-free songs in a bid to help increase competition in the digital music market. iTunes has more than 70 percent market share in the United States.

iTunes will offer all 10 million songs free of digital rights management by the end of the quarter, Schiller said.