Apple Offers DRM-Free Option to All Content Partners

Steve Jobs said that he expects over 50% of the music in the iTunes store to be available by 2008 without the Fairplay DRM that restricts how users can play their purchased content. Although the unprotected AAC files he's talking about are still not playable on most non-Apple MP3 players, the move towards unprotected content represents a major step forward for online music, which has been hampered by interoperability issues for years.

In addition to the smallest major label, EMI, which has already agreed to allow its music to be sold
in the unprotected AAC format, Apple has extended the offer to all of the labels and artists with which it has deals to sell music through iTunes. From the notices Apple sent out, it looks like there has been a decent amount of interest in the DRM-free option:

"Many of you have reached out to iTunes to find out how you can makeyour songs available higher quality and DRM-free. Starting nextmonth, iTunes will begin offering higher-quality, DRM-free music andDRM-free music videos to all customers [by "customers," Apple means its content partners]."

These deals require a fair amount of hashing-out. But if the labels are ready, Apple could hit that 50% mark well before 2008.

(via macrumors; image from dave's esl cafe)