Those like me whom are addicted to their BlackBerry, will now have the chance starting in April to download DRM-Free songs; thanks to the company Puretracks.

Universal Music Group has announced that it will test the market by selling DRM-Free Music. High-quality downloads will be offered through digital retailers such as Rhapsody, Amazon, Best Buy, Wal-Mart, Real Networks, Transworld, and PureTracks; but not iTunes. This is in hope of taking away the iTunes monopoly, by building more retail outlets for consumers. Universal refused to enter into any long-term licensing deals with iTunes, and opted for a month-to-month arrangement.

iTunes Plus launched today bringing DRM free music from some of EMI’s artists. More of EMI’s catalogue will be released DRM free in the near future as well as other labels music. Check out the current offerings on the iTunes Store here.

EMI and Apple today announced a plan to sell DRM free music starting this May. Songs on the iTunes store will be sold a higher quality bit-rate of 256 kbps AAC for $1.29 a song. You will also have the option to upgrade songs you have already purchased at the 128 kbps rate for $.30 a song. EMI’s music videos will also be sold without DRM for no additional charge. For more information you can read the press releases at the links below.

Note: EMI will also sell DRM free music on other download stores at a later date.

An article from the man himself, Steve Jobs, appeared today on Apple’s website in regards to his thoughts on Music. The short story is that Steve Jobs says Apple would be more then happy to embrace DRM free music and that its up to the “Big 4″ labels to decide weather the music they sell gets the DRM smack or not. Give the good article a read here.

DRM is the same thing as the record labels and some content providers saying “I’m Scared”. DRM (the cute way of saying Digital rights management) locks Music, movies, and any other type of content to a specific way of using it. An example of this would be buying a song from itunes but not being able to play the song without an iPod or the itunes media player. Another example would be Microsoft’s Playsforsure. The clever name is not very descriptive though because Playsforsure DRM does not work with every mp3 player (ex. Microsoft’s own Zune).