Vodafone announced March 11 that it has signed deals with Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and EMI Music to offer their tracks and albums DRM free (without digital rights management) across Vodafone markets for both mobile phones and PCs.
 
The new deals are the first of their kind for a mobile network operator, enabling dual delivery of DRM free music to a wide range of mobile phones and PCs with no need to sideload or synchronize.  Customers will be able to play music bought from these three labels via the Vodafone Music store without any limit to the type of device , provided they belong to the customer.
 
 Customers who have already bought tracks or albums from Universal Music, Sony Music or EMI in WMA format (with DRM) will be able to upgrade them to MP3 at no extra charge within the existing download allowance.  DRM free music will be available through a number of Vodafone countries by the summer and will complement Vodafone’s current music offerings.

"I have long believed that the key to acceptance of digital music is to remove restrictive DRM," says Richard Windsor, a global technology specialist at Nomura International. "Importantly Vodafone has gone DRM-free before Nokia, giving it a weapon with which to push back against Nokia's comes-with-music offering."