Jobs signs four major labels to 99c downloads
Looks like this is shaping up to be a good week for Apple and their digital music business -- after the French government effectively eviscerated the iPod DRM bill, it was reported that EMI, Sony BMG, Universal, and Warner Music have all renewed their contracts to sell music on the iTunes Music Store at the standard, flat $0.99 per track rate (that was supposedly settled on before), instead of that yucko variable pricing scheme that would have had consumers paying more for new music, and less for older tracks. It basically sounds like Jobs himself reigns victorious over putting these music execs in their place and bending them his will, but who knows how long he'll be able to stave off their pricing tactics. Something eventually has to give between the irresistable force that is the record labels and the immovable object that is iTunes; who knows how it'll all play out when this new contract is up (whenever that is).
