Zune Inks DRM-free Deal with EMI

Microsoft, no doubt looking to improve on its 8.98-percent market share, has announced that Zune and its online store will begin carrying DRM-free songs sometime soon. A firm date for such a practice to begin has not yet been announced, but you get the idea.

The announcement out of Redmond comes in the wake of the Apple-EMI deal. Zune fans will be able to get EMI DRM-free tunes as well, with further deals with other labels to come in the not too distant future.

What does it all mean? Well, the No. 1 and No. 2 in the MP3 player market have locked up protection-free song deals with the world’s largest music library. (Sadly, neither of these deals contains the Beatles mammoth footprint.) What’s likely to happen next is that other DAP manufacturers will make their own similar announcements and that other record labels will follow suit.