James Delahunty
25 Apr 2006 0:39
It has been reported that negotiations between Apple Computer Inc. and the big four record labels Sony BMG, EMI, Warner Music and Universal have reached breaking point with Apple refusing to change its stance on variable pricing. The argument is over iTunes' single price for all tracks (99c in U.S.). Record labels would prefer to set the prices per track themselves, upping the price of more popular music and lowering that of less popular. However, Steve Jobs believes it's too early to make such a change now.
Last year, Jobs had enough of the complaining and publicly commented that record labels are getting greedy. Edgar Bronfman Jr, head of Warner, retaliated by saying the pricing on iTunes was unfair to artists and commented that record labels should even get a cut out of the sale of iPods. Steve Jobs believes that when there is an alternative to legal download services that offers music for free, upping the price of any tracks is pushing it.
Of course, threats that some record labels could pull their catalogue from iTunes have circulated but to Apple, at this stage, they are empty threat. iTunes has sold over 1 billion songs since it first launched and holds over three quarters of the music download market.
Source:
TechTree