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Germany's Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper reports that the record company is considering providing access to its entire digital catalogue for a monthly payment of between six and eight euro.

"The simplest option would be a flat rate under which a monthly payment would provide access to our entire music catalogue for all digital players, including Apple's iPod," said Sony BMG chief executive Rolf Schmidt-Holtz.

That suggests an absence of DRM, since there is not a single system that is compatible with all leading portable players. But subscriptions services rely on DRM. Otherwise the user could simply stop paying after one month, having downloaded millions of tracks.

Schmidt-Holtz said that he is holding talks with other music distributors interested joining a launch planned for this year.