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Norah Jones' new single 'Thinking About You' is among tracks available as 99 cent MP3s from Yahoo's US-only digital music service. Zach Hochkeppel , the general manager of Jones' label, the EMI-owned Blue Note, said the release was 'an experiment', adding that EMI's choice of an artist with a primarily adult fan base should mitigate against widespread p2p sharing of the song file.

'Nobody gets hurt - we think,' Hochkeppel said, adding that he had overcome

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strong resistance within EMI to the change of policy.

The major record companies have come under differing pressures to be more flexible when it comes to imposing DRM, not least the success of eMusic, which has sold almost 100 million MP3 from independent labels and demonstrated a demand for unrestricted music (so, arguably, has Allofmp3.com, though its success may have more to do with its royalty-free prices). There is also the suggestion, voiced by the head of Yahoo!'s digital music service, Dave Goldberg, that DRM results in fewer sales. Goldberg has been a prominent advocate of restriction-free downloading.

Moreover, selling MP3s would enable labels to get their digital tunes onto iPods without having to sell through the iTunes Store and would enable music to be easily moved between devices. Both would have some effect on Apple's dominance of the digital music market, doubtless to the delight of record company executives who have expressed concerns that it is too powerful.

Nonetheless, labels will take some convincing - in the form of increased sales figures and no noticeable upturn in file sharing - before they wholeheartedly embrace MP3 downloading.