iTunes: No tiered pricing after all?

The New York Post is reporting that the record industry may be conceding on its request to introduce multi-tiered pricing on the Apple iTunes Music Store. Essentially, the record industry wants to have a variable pricing structure where more popular songs are more expensive than less popular ones. Steve Jobs, on the other hand, wants to maintain an across-the-board price of 99 cents per song.

With contracts between iTunes and the four major music companies set to expire in the next two months, negotiations, described as anything but amicable are going down to the wire. It is even possible that some labels will pull their music or operate without a new contract while they continue to reach new terms.

With movie download negotiations also proving difficult, the next few months will be interesting. This could become the opportunity that Apple’s competitors have been looking for to catch up.

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