AppleInsider is giving credence to a report it has seen from French technology blog ElectronLibre, claiming Apple's iTunes Store is on the brink of a global transition to a DRM-free catalogue from all four major labels. In fact, the report suggests the switch will go into effect today.
Our American colleague at CNET News, Greg Sandoval, discredits the rumour, however, citing his own music industry contacts as denying the deal.
Currently iTunes only has EMI's catalogue offered in its DRM-free iTunes Plus format, and for a while that's all anyone had. But 7digital snagged all four majors earlier this year, becoming the first European download site to acquire such deals. Amazon recently followed suit by launching its acclaimed MP3 store in the UK.
With the music industry happy to have gone DRM-free with sites in Europe such as Amazon, it's almost certainly only a matter of time until iTunes -- the world's largest music retailer, both online and offline -- offers everything in the higher-quality, DRM-free iTunes Plus format.
We contacted Apple, but it declined to comment on the matter.
Let us know in the comments below what you think, or head over to our forum for a full and frank discussion with some remarkably like-minded chaps.
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