July 14, 1999
Web posted at: 3:50 p.m. EDT (1950 GMT)

(CNN) -- Web rats, music freaks and the rest of us should soon be able to groove to our favorite pop tunes the Internet way, thanks to a hard-won agreement on how to profitably distribute music online.

Standards announced Tuesday by the Secure Digital Music Initiative -- a group of computer and music companies -- will finally clear the way for the major record labels to make their top tunes instantly available.

"Rather than going down to your local store, you have the option of firing up your computer, downloading from the Internet a bunch of music you like," says attorney Jim Burger, "and having that music conveniently right there at your home."

The deal has two phases. In phase one, all popular Internet music formats will be supported, including the controversial, easily pirated MP3 format.

When phase two kicks in, probably next year, music companies will insert digital signatures called "watermarks" into the music files themselves to prevent unauthorized copying.

At a meeting in Los Angeles last month, more than 100 companies from the music, consumer electronics and information technology industries finalized the standards. It was ratified at a SDMI Plenary meeting in Los Angeles on Thursday.

Nonetheless, the plan has some Internet watchdogs growling.

"While we are in support of creating standards for payment, we are not in support of lockdowns that inhibit both the growth of the market and of society," said Tara Lemmy of the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

But the so-called "Big Five" record labels, which control 85 percent of U.S. record sales, say built-in copy protection is the only way they can safeguard their music from freeloading downloaders.

The SDMI deal means you will see more digital music players on store shelves in time for Christmas, when the music industry hopes to start cashing in, at long last, on the Internet-music boom.

Consumers will have the final word on that, deciding either that SDMI music works for them and or that it doesn't.

Some technical hurdles remain but once big-name pop-stars hit the Internet, selling singles for as little as a dollar apiece, music sales could rock the Web.

Correspondent Rick Lockridge contributed to this report.