iTunes Will Stay at 99 Cents

All of the iTunes deals with record companies are set to expire over the next two months, and the negotions are starting to lean in Steve Jobs’ favor. The record companies had originally wanted to go the route of variable pricing — as in jacking up the rates of popular songs, of course. Less popular tracks and back catalog would have been offered at a rate lower than 99 cents. iTunes customers were not happy about this possible new deal, and that could have spelled disaster for the booming music download service. These negotiations had gotten dirty, with execs saying that one price point
was unfair to their artists and threatening to pull their content; Jobs
responded by calling the labels "greedy." However, it seems talks between Jobs and the labels have reached a turning point as several record execs are now saying they are unlikely to convince Jobs to allow variable pricing. We can only hope.