Fans and artists who are less than jazzed by major entertainment companies using DRM technology to lock up digital media have reason to be a little optimistic this month.

At South by Southwest last week, SNOCAP announced it had reached deals with major indies Sub Pop, Dangerbird and New Line to distribute their music via MySpace without DRM. As TechCrunch astutely points out, these labels operate under the umbrella of Warner, one of the nation’s biggest music groups. Last Fall, SNOCAP inked a deal with MySpace to allow artists to sell their music via their MySpace pages without DRM technology. read more