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'We would advocate that Apple opts for interoperability,' BPI chairman Peter Jamieson told the House of Commons Select Committee for Culture, Media & Sport inquiry into New Media and the Creative Industries.

Jamieson acknowledged the huge contribution that Apple has made to the development of the digital music business as well as the 'enormous appeal' of its integrated hardware and software. But he said that its dominance of the market is a concern.

'It's not particularly healthy for any one company to have such a dominant share,' he said.

He said that Apple should be prepared to license the FairPlay DRM software that controls which devices can play iTunes Music Store downloads.

Asked to summarise the position of UK record companies, Jamieson said that although music has never been more popular, he will not be breaking out the champagne just yet.

'Digital

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was always a threat and an opportunity, and I believe we are getting beyond the threat stage,' he said.

He added that: 'The UK recording industry is committed to embracing every opportunity of digital technology in order to ensure the volume that must crucially accompany these new avenues of exploitation.'

Independent record companies also submitted evidence to the inquiry and attempted to correct a couple of popular misconceptions about digital music and the role of the Internet.

Mark Richardson, managing director of Independiente Records, said that for independent labels the cost of digital distribution is higher than the cost of CDs, but said that this did not have too great an impact on labels' overall costs.

'At this point in time the cost of distribution for downloads is actually higher than for CDs,' Richardson said. 'Regardless of that, however, distribution remains a relatively small part of the investment record companies make in music. All of the key costs for a piece of music remain virtually the same whatever format you distribute it on.'

He also rejected the idea that the Internet will make record companies redundant. He said that many of the oft-quoted examples of Internet-built bands are simply an adaptation of long-established business methods.

'Far from doing without record companies, they have used the Internet to get themselves better deals with record companies,' he said.