Steve Jobs and iTunes dominance

In 2002,
when Steve Jobs - Apple Computer CEO - went to the top record
label executives, no one would have thought the iTunes would ever be what it is
today. Now these same record labels are worried about his power in the music
industry. Issues like song pricing of iTunes got record labels searching for new
partners, particularly mobile phone carriers looking to get into the
music selling business.

For example, Apple wants to sell all its songs for 99 cents each, a single price point that's easy for consumers to understand. But the record labels have pressed for the ability to vary prices to maximize their own sales. They want to sell older titles at a discount--like the $9.99 CDs available in most record stores--and charge more for popular songs to take advantage of market demand. Jobs also has refused to license Apple's antipiracy technology, called FairPlay, to rival MP3 player makers, and has blocked music formats from other companies, such as Microsoft, from the iPod. This makes iPods and the iTunes store incompatible with rival digital music devices and stores, fragmenting the market in a way the labels fear ultimately limits sales. "We hate the current situation," one top record industry executive said, referring to the issue of incompatibility between different companies' music devices and services."

I don't know if this situation is going to have any
impact on iTunes and related products, but I do know that record labels are not
enjoying these issues at all. They have a lot of power in their hands too, and
might start charging extra money for the use of the songs, which indirectly will
increase the price song on the iTunes store. Either way, I guess the only one
that looses between this is the end-consumer, which will eventually have to pay
more for a song. Discuss this and other related subjects on our Music Downloads, Peer-to-Peer (P2P) & Legal Issues Forum.

Source: C|Net News