Variable Pricing Haunting Apple Again

Not sure why this is a suprise…if you ask me, there’s some sleazy PR going on from music labels in “leaking-out” this story, as a way to pressure Apple publicly.

Anyway, variable pricing in the industry has been talked about since the start, so it doesn’t come as a surprise that when the Apple iTunes music label contracts come up for renewal next year, some music labels are pushing for a higher price for laest songs and lower price for back catalogs.

It is not as dire as this story makes it out to be: labels can ill-afford to cut out someone with 70 percent market share, and if they had some sense, they would rather beat Microsoft and other hardware players to get their act together on portable subscriptions, rather than trying to mess with a cultural force.

Anyway, a good story to read in full, to realize the stakes involved…

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