News 

Major labels have recently released albums from a number of high-profile artists that include software to prevent them being ripped on a PC. As a result it has come in for scathing criticism from iPod owning fans of the Foo Fighters and Dave Matthews among others.

Sony BMG countered that the albums were also available through the iTunes Music Store, but that did little to appease people who prefer to own a physical copy of their music. Executives then added that talks with Apple are continuing and a solution is possibly imminent.

'It's up to Apple to flip the switch,' one said.

Despite the criticism, sales of the protected CDs do not appear to have been affected, with the Foo Fighters enjoying their best ever week.

A spokeswoman from EMI said that the company has received complaints came from just 0.02 per cent of buyers of the 127 million protected CDs it had sold.