“Apple Computer on Monday revealed it had renewed contracts with the four largest record companies to sell songs through its iTunes digital store at 99 cents each. The agreements came after months of bargaining, and were a defeat for music companies that had been pushing for a variable pricing model,” Joshua Chaffin and Kevin Allison report for The Financial Times. “The music industry’s big four – Universal, Warner Music, EMI and Sony BMG – were not immediately available to comment.”
“The issue has occasionally become acrimonious, with Mr Jobs last year publicly labelling the industry ‘greedy,’ Apple and the music companies declined to comment on the current round of negotiations. However, several music executives privately acknowledge that they have little leverage over Mr Jobs,” Chaffin and Kevin Allison report. “iTunes accounts for about 80-percent of the US digital music market at a time when the record companies are desperate to show shareholders they are replacing declining compact disc sales with new internet revenues. ‘The labels need Apple too much right now,”‘ne record executive said.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Game. Set. Match.
(No word, yet, on the length of the contract. More details ASAP.)
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Go Apple!
Wow…
XD
Way to go Steve!!!!
Haha! Steve made them suck it!!
…now where’s that new ad campaign? I really hope the new apple store t-shirts and posters weren’t what he was talking about. I want to see some f’ing COMMERCIALS!
“Mr Jobs last year publicly labelling the industry ‘greedy,'”
Is that fair? I mean it’s not like they have a history of greed and corruption. Oh wait, the recording industry? I thought they were talking about the big four clothing labels. Oops, that’s wrong too.
Man, it pays to have better reading comprehension.
Did WB ever try their own iToons Store?
HUGE win for Apple.
Yeh-heh-heh-hehessssssssssss . . . what a bunch of greedy whores! It doesn’t surprise me. Besides, those Warner bastards tried to skim my profits from my Come Poop With Me! CD and I’ll poop on them til de day I die.
But really, this is good news. I swear — these record companies are caving faster these days than Starr Jones’ chest.
My nipples are exploding with pleasure. Job’s done.
I’m wondering when downloads will include lyrics, insert notes, etc. That’s when we’ll see an additional cost, whereas the Music labels will only gain profit, as they make this stuff already.
Dare I mention the same truth posted when this controversy first began…
What are the labels going to do, walk away from tremendous profits?
Apple should now remove Warner Music Groups songs off of iTunes, unless they lower their pricing.
So much for MTV and Microsift vaporware. Johnny Cochran says: If you can’t compete, Apple will defeat.
A big win for the consumer.
It’s not illegal to “be” a monopoly in the U.S., it is only illegal to abuse that power. Not that the ITMS is a monopoly, I think it only qualifies as having a lot of clout, it’s just good to see that power being used to benefit the consumer.
Hey Real R:
Try downloading pearLyrics widget. As you listen to a song in iTunes, it finds the lyrics on the internet and copies the lyrics into the info properties for the song.
You don’t know the history of online music sales. I do.
Way to go Apple!
Guess those labels finally saw the error of their greedy ways.
(I don’t want to hear the subscription crybabies! Pay the darn 99¢ you cheap basterds!!)
iTMS still only runs 128kbps encoded tracks. Who cares whether the songs are at .99 or 1.20 a piece as long as they sound crap with good equipment. I bet those “scientific” tests where made with half deaf people – or tehy were made using Apple’s piece o shite iPod earphones. 192 kbps AAC and I’m doing some shopping, otherwise I’ll just continue to rip from CDs. This issue really bugs the hell out of me, why aren’t there any polls about this? Oh, and I so love it when some people claim the encoding hisses and oddities are only issues for hidef snobs, ultra sensitive people etc. I guess I just didn’t ruin my ears on those raves. It’s also an issue that doesn’t really fit Apple’s usual quality measures, I mean, since when did Apple serve people with something that’s “good enough” or “okay-ish”, say?
What is to prevent the record labels from allowing variable pricing for all the other download sites, and just release all new material to them first then after the song has run its popularity, release it to iTunes. That way the labels get their variable pricing, and bypass Steve’s control. If new music is only available on WMA sites for the first few weeks then that will tend to boost their popularity, again sticking it to Steve. Maybe I shouldn’t put this bug in the labels ear.
since when did Apple serve people with something that’s “good enough” or “okay-ish”
OS9?
since when did Apple serve people with something that’s “good enough” or “okay-ish”
The Performa line?
shipwithsails,
What is to prevent the record labels from allowing variable pricing for all the other download sites, and just release all new material to them first then after the song has run its popularity, release it to iTunes?
Nothing, except the contract. Do you think Steve Jobs is an idiot? He dictated the contract terms, on that you can bet, and he dictated them to benefit Apple.
The also-rans will continue to shrink and some will die soon.
I sent Apple an email about their 128kbps encoding and this was their response.
Thank you for contacting the iTunes Music Store.
Thank you for your suggestion. All music purchased from the iTunes Music Store is encoded using MPEG-4 Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) format at 128kbps, a high-quality format that rivals CD quality.
We welcome your comments and suggestions regarding the iTunes Music Store. To ensure your feedback is considered for possible product enhancements or additions to the iTunes Music Store, please visit the Feedback page at <http://www.apple.com/feedback/itunes.html>.
Sincerely,
Robert
The iTunes Music Store team
http://www.apple.com/support/itunes/ww/
That rivals CD quality??? Bwahahahahaha. Come on Apple.
>That rivals CD quality??? Bwahahahahaha. Come on Apple.>
Joe Frasier rivaled Mohamed Ali, lost to him though.
Ampar, you got me there. Can’t agree with Joop tho, I’d say OS9 was really sweet. Damn, I still miss Action Utilities and Click There It Is, just to name some things missing in OSX. But that’s too OT for this thread to bitch about.
A huge win in strong-arming your “partners”! And with that, I’m sure the labels will exit Apple’s grip at their earliest opportunity, just like the TV networks. Microsoft is smiling.
Case in point, one can now download last night’s TV episodes directly off the network TV sites without paying a dime. Everyone but the Apple sheep will be laughing at paying $1.99 per episode, commercials or not. Internet media will NOT depend on Apple for distribution, mark my words.