Edgar Bronfman, chief executive of Warner Music, gave a stinging response yesterday to the suggestion by Steve Jobs, head of Apple, that record companies should abandon antipiracy software.

He described Mr Jobs’s argument, which appeared in an open letter on the Apple web-site on Tuesday, as “completely without logic or merit”.

It is the first public rejection of Mr Jobs’s suggestion by a head of a major record label. Universal, the world’s biggest record company, and Sony BMG have also said they are committed to copyright protection systems, known as Digital Rights Management (DRM).

Only EMI, which has released tracks by artists such as Norah Jones and Lily Allen without copyright protection, said it was interested in experimenting with unprotected digital music. Unprotected music is better for consumers because it can be played on a variety of music players, but it is also more susceptible to piracy.

Apple protects music down-loaded through its iTunes Music Store with a system called FairPlay, which prevents users from playing tracks on any portable music player except for iPods. Apple has been criticised by several European regulators who believe FairPlay is anticompetitive.

Mr Jobs said this week that Apple would drop FairPlay “in a heartbeat” if record labels allowed him to sell tracks without DRM. Such a system would allow songs sold through iTunes to be played on other players. “This is clearly the best alternative for consumers,” he said. Record company sources said Mr Jobs’s comments were disingenuous because Apple could help consumers by licensing FairPlay to competitors.

Mr Bronfman’s retort come as Warner announced a fall in revenues of 11 per cent, from $1.04 billion to $928 million.

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