By Team Register for The Register.
This article has been reproduced with permission.
The deal follows Apple's latest round of licensing negotiations with the world's biggest recorded-music companies, Universal, Sony BMG, EMI and Warner. Apple has insisted that its pricing model is the best way to drive forward the nascent digital music download market because it's simple and easy for consumers to understand. ITMS does support variable pricing for albums.
Of course, the labels may have ultimately felt Apple holds the all the cards. ITMS accounts for around 80 per cent of digital music download sales, largely thanks to the popularity of the iPod, and the labels are unlikely to want to push their biggest download seller too far. That said, downloads still account for a tiny proportion of overall music sales.
© The Register 2006