Electronista has reported that according to "French sources familiar with negotiations for multiple online music stores", Apple is preparing to launch EMI's DRM-free music library on iTunes this week. It could meet Apple's regular Tuesday update schedule, but nothing's sure yet.

According to Electronista, their contacts reportedly said that the companies' technicians are now "in the later stages of encoding and hosting the files before they go live".

The terms of the Apple-EMI deal require that whole albums are will be offered as "a second tier of 256Kbps AAC files without the iTunes-only FairPlay copy protection scheme."

The relatively late debut may be attributed primarily to the decision to release the whole catalog at once, as opposed to a gradual rollout. Another possible reason according to Electronista is legal issues. Apple and EMi reportedly signed a final deal just last week following negotiations of similar contracts with both the new Amazon Store and Europe's VirginMega service.