Puretracks whose majority owner is Bell Canada made the huge announcement today that it would begin offering certain music downloads in a DRM-free MP3 format.

Approximately 50,000 songs will be available without the DRM technology. Currently the Puretracks catalog is over one million songs so this is nothing compared to their entire library but it is a huge step in a DRM-free direction.

The 50,000 songs which will be available DRM-free will be from lesser known artists and music companies.

Canadian consumers who want the latest greatest songs at the top of the charts DRM-free will be disappointed to know that this is not going to happen just yet.

Nothing in the Top 100 charts or any new releases or most requested was available in the DRM-free format.

The only popular artists available were a part of the Canadian Music Creators Coalition who are a anti-DRM trade group who has artists in it such as Barenaked Ladies.

Other members of the group include Avril Lavigne and Sarah McLaughlin.

MP3 downloads will be available only on the Puretracks website. They will not be available for purchase on other “Powered by Puretracks” websites including the MSN/Sympatico music store.

The current pricing for the Puretracks MP3 catalog is very reasonable at around .79 cents per cong. Most of the songs though are at the .99 cents per song price point which is still decent.

We will have to wait and see if thsi is a trend that will be progressing in terms of DRM-free music and if it will catch on any further. It is something that the consumer surely wants but something that the music industry does not want to give up on for the simple fact that it allows them the most important thing, control over the distribution of the music which they are trying to make money off of.