Microsoft seems to have changed its position on selling digital music online without digital rights management (DRM) protection, hinting that the company will sell DRM free songs via its Zune platform.

This change of position comes just days after EMI announced a deal with Apple to sell songs without DRM through Apple’s iTunes store beginning next month, and possibly later through other online outlets.

By providing downloads without the anti-copying “digital-rights management” software, “we aim to address the lack of interoperability, which is frustrating for many music fans,” EMI CEO Eric Nicoli said.

Jason Reindorp, head of marketing for Zune said the move could loosen the tight bonds between the iTunes store and the iPod.

“This does open things up a little bit. It potentially makes the competition more of a device-to-device or service-to-service basis, and will force the various services to really innovate,” Reindorp said.

Though EMI declined to comment about a possible deal with Microsoft, an EMI spokesman confirmed that negotiations with other platforms, such as Zune, were ongoing.

Katy Asher, a Microsoft spokeswoman on the Zune team said, Microsoft has been talking with not only EMI but other record labels “for some time now” about offering unprotected music on its Zune players in an effort to meet the needs of its customers.

“Consumers have made it clear that unprotected music is something they want,” Asher said. “We plan on offering it to them as soon as our label partners are comfortable with it.”

David Pakman, eMusic president and CEO had this to say: “We think this is great news for the music industry and a big win for customers. Digital retailers will now have a product customers truly want to buy because it offers high quality and flexibility. Universal compatibility and experimentation with various business models and different price points will help the music industry to grow again.”

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Entry was posted on Saturday, April 7th, 2007 at 2:34 am under Apple, Microsoft, Technology.

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