The move would see the company, home to the Beatles, Robbie Williams and others, pick up the gauntlet laid down last week by Apple chief executive Steve Jobs, who in a statement on Apple's website called for the online sale of music without copy protection.

Such a move would revolutionise the music industry, which has seen CD sales fall since 2000 though they still represent nearly 90% of all music sales.

Simply put it would mean that any digital music player would be able to play tracks purchased from any source.

Apple has long been criticised for what some, including the government of Norway, allege is the anti- competitive practice whereby songs purchased from Apple's dominant iTunes online shop can only be played on the company's iPod music player.

Apple's proposal was earlier in the week met with scorn by other music executives including Warner Music chief executive Edgar Bronfman.

A move by EMI in that direction would signal a significant split among the main music companies, who had been attempting to present a united front against Apple.

An EMI spokeswoman declined to comment to the AP newswire on Friday after the story, which had circulated for several days on technology blogs, was broken by the Wall Street Journal.

The move could see the Beatles catalogue made available for digital download for the first time - following just a few days after Beatles' imprint Apple Corps settled a long-running trademark dispute with Jobs' Apple Inc.