Apple With Upper Hand In Negotiations With Record Labels
04.20.07 - 12:33pm
CD sales lost over 13 percent of their revenue in 2006, and digital music sales jumped 60 percent, with album sales up 103
percent. This puts record companies in a bit of a rock and a hard place in upcoming negotiations with Apple over music contracts coming up this next month. With such an exorbitant loss of music sales, record companies need to find a way to make money selling the music digitally. With Apple controlling over 80% of a market that the record labels desperately need, the record labels may forced to play into Apple’s hands when the contracts hit the tables
Apple clearly will be fighting for DRM free music and since EMI has already signed up to have all their music DRM free the record labels hands have already been called, without even getting a chance to fight for Apple’s Fairplay to be opened up with DRM still in place.
