Apple May Win Music Price Fight

Although much credit has been given to Apple CEO Steve Jobs for digging in against music labels and their calls for variable music pricing, the labels may have had self-interest in mind in backing away from those demands. It looks like 99 cents will endure as the price of a single on iTunes, just the way Jobs wanted it. A frequently public battle between Jobs and the powerful music labels, reported on the apparent change of heart from the music labels, who threw out a few parting shots about variable pricing being the wave of the future. But before grabbing a board and surfing that wave, the music labels have a legal headache to handle first. Two rulings coming from Judge Marilyn Hall Patel's bench at the U.S. District Court for Northern California indicate three music labels were less than forthcoming with key information related to digital music sales and copyright infringement cases. In one ruling, it seems Universal Music Group and EMI Group held back from giving the Justice Department everything it requested in 2001, during the digital music sales investigation. Patel wants both businesses to hand over the documents and communication they withheld at that time, according to a Wall Street Journal Del.icio.us") | Yahoo! My Web |