THE big record companies face a fresh challenge after the nightclub group Ministry of Sound (MoS) announced the launch of a download store that will sell music free of any copy protection.

The specialist dance company will make available an initial 60,000 tracks that can be transferred between all digital music players, including the iPod, and copied an unlimited number of times.

Big record companies insist at present that all paid-for downloads contain some form of digital rights management (DRM) technology that restricts their use after sale.

People buying tracks from Apple’s iTunes store cannot move them on to non-Apple portable music devices. Other online stores limit the number of times that an MP3 file can be copied or “burnt” on to a CD. Record companies call DRM a key weapon against piracy.

However, a growing band of music fans say that DRM is an infringement of their rights to do what they wish with music that they have bought.

MoS, which operates an international network of “super-clubs”, is Britain’s largest independent record company, selling about two million dance compilation albums a year.

The London-based group, controlled by James Palumbo, believes that DRM is driving potential digital music buyers away. It will sell the latest dance tracks for an average price of 99p but free of restrictions on how they are stored, played or transferred.

Tracks will be playable on all MP3 players when the store opens next week, but MoS will not sell major label downloads unless they are licensed without DRM technology.

Lohan Presencer, managing director of the MoS Group, said: “DRM is a nonsense. It only succeeds in limiting choice and people still steal music regardless.”

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