Apple's competition heats up for the holidays

Hm. In this case what the record companies really want when they say they want "more flexibility on track pricing" is the ability to charge more per track and alienate consumers towards online music the same way they have done with CDs. In the roughly a quarter of a century since the CD was introduced prices have actually gone up because the record companies are a bunch of greedy bastards who don't care about the talent of the consumer.

Rock on, Apple! And keep "ignoring suggestions" from the labels. This is the way you will keep your dominance.

Competition benefits the consumer, so these challenges are a good thing. I'm still rooting for Apple, as I prefer them as a company to at the very least Sony and MS, but this will hopefully push them to do the best they can and not get lazy or greedy.

That said, what the record labels want isn't good for the consumer at all--they've quite clearly proven that over the past, oh, several DECADES. What they want is a market where a bunch of little companies are trying to make money selling music for them, where the only way to get noticed is to be on a label.

Think about it: If there are a hundred online stores, an indie artist can't easily work out a deal with every one of them unless they go through a label who already has. If there's only one big online store, and it's friendly to independants (like the iTMS is), then why even bother with a label?

Furthermore, they're not even working with a music company now--they've got is Apple, who negotiated a pretty good deal at the begining because they really don't care much about "selling" music--it's just a fringe benefit for their hardware sales right now.

Apple is perfectly happy selling music at a loss or break-even, and really they'd probably ditch the DRM entirely if they could--they don't care about the music so long as you're using iTunes and the iPod. If anything, they're probably apt to prefer working with individual artists--no worries about "raise your prices or we pull 5000 artists"--and have provided an easy means for the individual artist to "go iTMS".

This has all got to be frightening for the record labels. You could have a label-less world without an Apple monopoly, but only if there were some easy way for an indie artist to sign with a variety of online stores, which there currently isn't.

Record executives are eagerly awaiting the increased competition, because a less dominant Apple spells a more robust market for digital music, according to Reuters.

As was said, not a more robust market so much as a market not dominated by Apple, so a market that can be pushed around by the RIAA, not the other way around (what Apple has the power to do at this moment).

Apple simply disregards the labels suggestions for acquiring new digital music customers, requesting more flexibility on track pricing and promotions.

Yes, but the suggestions are "Hey, sell new and popular music at really high prices, like $2 or $3 a track, rather than that pidily 99 cents. At $3, people will think its really special and more will buy it then the 6 people now. We all know, higher prices mean more customers!"

Oh, and has anyone heard of any of these deals or promotions? All I've heard is "RIAA wants to raise digital music prices. Apple rejects it." And is there anything in their price strategies that would offer some large segment of music (large being like 10-20%, not some token 1% songs or something), especially older music which has a much reduced market at their current pricing, for significantly lower prices?

The iPod still outsells all of its competition by 3-to-1, contenders such as Sony and Samsung will need to leverage their global brand identities and revenue from other consumer electronics products to fund the fight for market share.

I'm sorry, since when did the record companies care about more market share? If they wanted that, they could cut prices!

"Apple is perfectly happy selling music at a loss or break-even, and really they'd probably ditch the DRM entirely if they could--they don't care about the music so long as you're using iTunes and the iPod."

I used to think so, too. But now I don't think that really is the case. See, if Apple did ditch the DRM, then you'd be able to listen to songs purchased from iTMS on any device, such as those from Creative or Samsung. That eliminates the "lock-in" that helps keep users with the iPod (along, of course, with factors such as ease-of-use and design).

I've wanted to read that in print for sooooo long.