Steve Jobs presided over an uncharacteristically anticlimactic product launch this afternoon as he struggled to compete with rumours doing the rounds in newsrooms and on the internet. When EMI said yesterday that it was pairing up with iTunes to launch “an exciting new digital offering”, many observers leapt to the conclusion that the Beatles’ back catalogue would soon be available on the Apple music store.

In fact, the announcement had nothing to do with the band. Instead, EMI said that it will sell music through iTunes without digital rights management, the technology that places restrictions on music files in an attempt to prevent piracy.

That may lack the glamour of the Beatles' digital debut, but if it heralds a more liberal approach to digital music it could prove more significant. Apple has been one of the greatest proponents of DRM, but Steve Jobs, the company’s chief executive, has recently begun to cast doubt on its desirability. In February, he called on record labels to abandon the restrictions, saying that Apple would happily embrace DRM-free music.

It’s quite a change of heart. In the early days of iTunes, the company needed a robust anti-piracy policy to convince record labels, which saw the web as a threat to their business, to hand over their goods to an online retailer.

Now, digital music is established as a legitimate and lucrative market, and EMI will have calculated that increased sales of DRM-free tracks will make up for any revenue lost to piracy. The 20p premium that consumers will have to pay for songs will also help to compensate for lost sales, although it risks antagonising consumers and making them feel that they've paid for the right to abuse the service.

Mr Jobs too may be feeling that the disadvantages of DRM are beginning to outweigh its advantages. A growing number of European countries are filing lawsuits against Apple’s FairPlay system, which prevent songs bought through iTunes from being transferred directly onto music players other than the iPod.

Consumer discontent with this is also growing, and Apple – always keen to portray itself as the little guy – will no doubt be anxious to avoid a long, Microsoft-style round of litigation in which it is cast as the enemy of the consumer.

Steve Jobs, a talented PR man, will be well aware that identifying himself and his company with the anti-DRM movement will help to counter any damage to the company’s image.