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The record label responsible for acts such as Coldplay and Robbie Williams has said that customers who buy its music online will be able get it without copyright protection - dropping a long-standing resistance to software designed to prevent piracy.

EMI announced today that it is to offer a significant portion of its online catalogue without anti-piracy software – meaning that customers buying EMI’s music on iTunes will be able to play the songs on devices other than iPods and make it easier multiple copies of their music, although this remains theoretically illegal.

The announcement, which came at a joint conference with Steve Jobs, Apple’s chief executive, will end a long-standing policy of employing a software known as DRM - digital rights management - which restricts the way customers can use the music they buy online. CDs contain no such software.

iTunes will offer all EMI's catalogue in a new premium downloadable form - 250k AAC compression instead of the current 128K AAC - for 99p per track, 20p more than the current fee and without copyright protection. Those who have already downloaded EMI music can upgrade the track for 20p.

The premium will not affect albums, which will be available in the new format for the usual price.

None of the Beatles tracks are yet included on the deal, but Mr Jobs - who launched the new deal in London with EMI's boss Eric Nicoli, said he wanted that to happen. Mr Nicoli said he was working on it.

As from tomorrow, a pilot album from rock group The Good the Bad and the Queen will be available from their website.

Mr Nicoli said: "When I told Damon Albarn (lead singer with the band) he used two words, the second of which was brilliant and the first of which was not jolly."

Mr Jobs said that by the end of the year half of the 5 million tracks on iTunes would be available in the new premium format. He said he would be talking with other record companies after the EMI announcement.

DRM has been a controversial issue in the music industry. Record companies have insisted that the software is necessary to prevent illegal copying, but Apple’s service has been criticised by several European regulators for being anti-competitive, prompting Mr Jobs to say in February that he would get rid of Apple’s system “in a heartbeat” if the labels agreed.

Edgar Bronfman, the chief executive of Warner Music, replied that Mr Jobs’s argument was “completely without logic or merit”.

Privately, however, labels have been exploring the possibility of dropping DRM, which is thought to be partly responsible for the disappointing uptake of online music sales.

Online music sales still account for only 10 per cent of the total market and are not yet growing at a rate which compensates for the decline in revenues from CDs – approximately 2 to 3 per cent per year.

EMI, which has previously released tracks by Norah Jones and Lily Allen without copyright protection, shelved plans to drop DRM on a more widespread basis after iTunes competitors refused to make “risk insurance” payments designed to offset potential losses that would result from the move. It is unclear whether Apple has made any such payment.

Other labels, including Universal Music and Song BMG, have experimented with offering music without DRM, but none has pursued the strategy as aggressively as EMI.

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