Perhaps in an effort to try to calm down people who have been unable to listen copy-protected CDs on their PCs, Sony's Label Gate CDs will allow customers to decode music from the CD onto their PC.

For the last several months, consumers in ordinary record stores around the world have unwittingly been buying CDs that include technology designed to discourage them from making copies on their PCs.

Copy-protection technology on music CDs may be headed for the U.S. market in bulk this year for the first time, according to one Wall Street analyst. In a research note published Friday, J.P. Morgan ...