Microsoft has hinted that it may be close to reaching a deal with EMI to sell songs without anti-piracy protection via its Zune platform.

The comments from Jason Reindorp, head of marketing for Zune, come in the same week that EMI announced a deal with Apple to sell songs without the protection, known as ‘digital rights management’ (DRM), through iTunes stores.

“We've been saying for a while that we are aware that consumers want to have unprotected content," Mr Reindorp told CNET news.

“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.”

EMI declined to comment on the speculation, though it reiterated that iTunes was just one of a number of digital music stores from which it anticipated selling DRM-free tracks “in the coming weeks".

An EMI spokesman said: “Negotiations with other platforms, such as Zune, are ongoing.”

Zune, a competitor device to the iPod, which has not yet been released in the UK, is struggling to make inroads against the iPod, which retains about 70 per cent of the market for MP3 players, although Microsoft has said it is on target to sell 1 million Zunes by the middle of the year.

On Monday, EMI announced that customers would be able to buy premium quality tracks without DRM software attached from iTunes for 99p, while standard sound quality would still be available with DRM for 79p.

Those who have purchased standard tracks with DRM will be able to upgrade their music for 20p per track.

EMI’s decision – which will put pressure on other major labels to follow – was prompted by the disappointing growth in digital music sales, and complaints from customers that they could not play music bought from iTunes on other devices.

Several labels have experimented with removing DRM, which was implemented to prevent rampant copying, but EMI has been the first to make its entire online catalogue DRM-free.

Edgar Bronfman, the chief executive of Warner Music, has previously dismissed the argument to remove DRM as being “completely without logic or merit”.

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