Apple announced today that its iTunes Plus catalogue has now reached over two million tracks. The iTunes Plus tracks offer DRM-free, higher quality audio tracks for a slightly higher price of $1.69 per song.

The iTunes Plus catalogue is now the largest DRM-free catalogue in the world, Apple says. The songs, which feature 256kbps AAC encoding, now include artists from Sub Pop, Nettwerk, Beggars Group, IODA, The Orchard and more along with EMI’s digital catalogue.

“iTunes Plus has been incredibly popular with our customers and now we’re making it available at an even more affordable price,” said Apple’s Vice President of iTunes, Eddy Cue. “We’re adding over two million tracks from key independent labels in addition to EMI’s digital catalogue and look forward to even more labels and artists making their music available on iTunes Plus.”

EMI began offering its catalogue on iTunes Plus earlier this year, with the selection now including singles and albums from the Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, Norah Jones, Frank Sinatra and the solo careers of all four Beatles.

Because the tracks are DRM-free you can download them without limitations on the type of music player or number of computers that purchased songs can be played on. iTunes Plus songs purchased from the iTunes Store will play on all iPods, iPhone, Windows or Mac computers, widescreen TVs with Apple TV, as well as many other digital music players, the company says.

The iTunes Store features over four million songs, 7,000 music videos, 100,000 podcasts and 20,000 audiobooks and has sold over three billion songs worldwide.

See: www.itunes.com.au