EMI unlocks song list (sans Beatles) in Canadian deal

Puretracks Inc. says it has become the first Canadianoutlet formusic from Britain's EMI digital catalogue,including songs fromfromthe Rolling Stones but not the Beatles, at $1.29 apiece without copy protection.

That compares with prices ranging from 79 centsto $1.19for songs sold onthe Toronto company'ssitewith copy-thwarting Digital Rights Management (DRM), Puretracks sales co-ordinator Allison Scully told CBC News Online on Friday

The deal, announced a day earlier, brings Puretracks' list to about 70,000 songs,Scully said.

Albums, unlike single tracks,will bethe same price with or without DRM, she said.

Anastasia Saradoc, a spokeswoman for EMI MusicCanada, saidthe dealcovers most of the EMI catalogue but not "as of right now" the Beatles, whoselabel has been zealous in defence of copyright.

EMI beganunlocking its catalogue in April in a similar deal with Apple Inc.'s iTunes operation.

Scully said Puretracks has erasedglitches thatarose last winter blocking Mac usersfrom buying songs and causing tracksin the MP3 format to appear tobe Windows Media files in some circumstances.

She said the EMI deal is for Canadian customers only and does not applyto sales on Puretracks' U.S. site.