Music Labels & iTunes in Talks Again

The largest record labels, Universal, Sony-BMG, Warner Music, and EMI, are in talks with Apple once again, putting pressure on the Apple to make some changes over at the iTunes store. Top on the list will be the request for iTunes to offer a subscription service, something many iTunes customers have wanted for a long time. The labels believe that a subscription service would bring in more revenue as it would increase consumption of music as well as provide the labels with a share of the monthly payments. Also on the agenda is something that iTunes customers don’t want: higher prices for new music. Apple fought this battle back in 2005/2006 and prevailed, keeping the downloads at a fixed price. As it stands right now, Apple has the power in these negotiations since they are the number one music download service, accounting for 75% of online music sales in the U.S.

You just know the record labels were hoping the Zune would be the iPod killer that Microsoft had wanted it to be so they could get out of Apple’s stranglehold over the online marketplace. I personally don’t want to see an iPod killer if it means the labels would be able to start making demands on Apple to charge me more for my tunes. However, on the plus side, if Apple ever had any real competition, the price of the iPod players themselves would come down.