14 DAY TRIAL // Negotiations between Apple and the four major record companies, with which the deals for the iTunes Music Store all expire within the next two months, have been going on for some time. The labels have been making it very loud and clear for some time now that they want variable pricing, while Jobs is well known for calling them greedy and sticking with the fixed pricing, and it seems that Jobs is winning the fights.
"The record industry may be on the verge of waving the white flag in front of Apple boss Steve Jobs, and abandoning its demand for iTunes to charge different prices for different songs," Tim Arango reports for The New York Post.
It seems that Apple's CEO wants things done his way, and record executives are beginning to see that he will not be swayed. Some executives are even said to have mentioned pulling their music from the iTMS, and while this is very unlikely, it is a clear indication of the heated negotiations that are taking place. Withdrawing from the iTMS is very unlikely, as it accounts for approximately 80% of all digital downloads, which are becoming increasingly important to the music industry.
It looks like in the end Jobs will have his way, and if the comments that may be seen all over the Internet on this issue are any indication, it is for the better as customers prefer the fixed pricing and say that $0.99 is the threshold they will not cross.