EMI looks likely to become the first major record label to drop DRM from its online music collection.

The company has scheduled a press conference with chief executive Eric Nicoli for 1pm today, at which Steve Jobs will represent Apple suggesting that the DRM-free music will be sold from Apple's iTunes store.

Reports in this weekend's Wall Street Journal posit that not all EMI's collection will be available without DRM.

Analysts have suggested that the announcement will be a major shift for the music industry.

EMI is the weakest of the big four music companies that dominate the distribution of artists' work. CD sales are falling off, and digital music is failing adequately to replace the lost sales.

The other possibility for today's conference is that Apple has at last reached a deal with EMI to sell The Beatles' music online.

Apple Corporation, the Fab Four's record company, has fiercely resisted online sales, but Apple Inc is keen to do so. The two companies recently buried the hatchet in a feud that has lasted nearly 30 years.