EMI Music said today that it has agreed to make its entire catalog available for sale on iTunes without copy-protection software, a groundbreaking move that makes it the first major label to do so.

EMI CEO Eric Nicoli made the announcement at a press conference at the major's London headquarters, flanked by Apple CEO Steve Jobs. EMI's new "higher quality" DRM-free music will be available on Apple's iTunes for $1.29 a track in the US starting in May, 30 cents more than iTunes' standard 99 cents per song.

"We are going to give iTunes customers a choice--the current versions of our songs for the same 99 cent price, or new DRM-free versions of the same songs with even higher audio quality and the security of interoperability for just 30 cents more," said Apple CEO Steve Jobs in a statement.

EMI's DRM-free catalog will be for sale on iTunes in May, with other digital retailers following thereafter. Nicoli said that EMI will continue to use DRM with other business models like subscriptions, which charge customers a monthly fee in exchange for unlimited rental access with restrictions on CD burning and transfers to portable devices.

Jobs and Nicoli emphasized the improved sound quality for the DRM-free versions, which will remain encoded in Apple's AAC format, which has the sound quality of the original master recording, but will not be copyright protected in Apple's Fairplay DRM.

The DRM-laden, 99-cent songs will sit alongside the DRM-free, $1.29 songs in iTunes. Consumers will have the ability to upgrade their standard versions by simply paying the difference.

DRM--or digital rights management--has been the central issue in digital music for several years. The labels have insisted that any music sold legally on digital stores like iTunes or Napster have technology attached to it that restricts what a user can do with the music, such as limiting the number of times it can be burned onto a CD.

But within the past year, support for DRM has begun to erode, with digital retailers, label honchos, and several European governments criticizing DRM's effect on music sales. The argument largely centers on the issue of interoperability, or the fact that several digital retailers like iTunes have their own, proprietary DRM that doesn't work with competitors. For example, DRM music bought on iTunes won't play on any MP3 player but an iPod.

The DRM issue took on a new light in February, when Jobs issued an 1,800-word online manifesto in which he vowed that Apple would "wholeheartedly" embrace a DRM-free world. EMI, meanwhile, had been testing sales of DRM-free MP3s with artists like Norah Jones, Relient K, and Lily Allen.

In making the announcement, Jobs hinted that EMI wouldn't be the only major label to make such a major move.

"We think our customers are going to love this, and we expect to offer more than half of the songs on iTunes in DRM-free versions by the end of this year," Jobs said.

Whether or not the other labels will follow EMI is open for debate. After Jobs' manifesto, Warner Music Group CEO Edgar Bronfman Jr. called Jobs' proposal "completely without logic or merit" and said his company was committed to the continued use of DRM in the same way that software makers and film studios safeguard their intellectual property.

Much of the speculation surrounding today's announcement centered on whether or not the Beatles would finally make their music available for sale digitally.

Blur frontman and Gorillaz mastermind Damon Albarn's latest project, The Good, the Bad & the Queen served as the launch artist for the project, and performed two songs at the press conference. Two of the band's songs will be available DRM-free from some online retailers today.