Recent initiatives are starting to rock the still new foundations of the paid-for music download industry.

Musician Peter Gabriel has launched We7, a download service that will allow people to legally download free music files that are not restricted with digital rights management (DRM). Meanwhile Apple has also started shipping music tracks without digital DRM and Amazon said it plans to follow suit selling unprotected mp3 tracks soon.

DRM or other copyright technology was introduced as a means of stamping out piracy but has proved unpopular with consumers because of the lack of interoperability.

The technology not only restricts the devices that can play digital file formats but limits the number of times a person can burn to CD or DVD the files they have legitimately bought for their personal use.

The latest trend, however, will allow customers to play their music on virtually any personal device, including PCs, Macs, Apple's iPod, Microsoft's Zune and Creative's Zen as well as allowing users to copy tracks for personal use.

But there is still a downside to both DRM-free and totally free downloads. Apple's DRM-free songs, which can be found in the new iTunes Plus store, are currently limited to EMI's record label and at 99p in the UK, the music is 25 to 30 per cent more expensive than songs with DRM. Users can upgrade previous iTunes purchases for about 20p per song.

Gabriel's We7 aims to provide free music to registered users. However, the users have to tolerate some advertisements before they can hear their favourite tunes.

The ads will be targeted specifically at the listener's interests, age and gender and also geographical location. We7 claims that after listening to ads for four weeks, users can then download another free version of the song minus the ads.

Although there will be the option to pay for a normal, ad-free version of the song it is not certain if the major record labels will be enthusiastic about We7's way of generating royalties.