Universal, Warner to Leave iTunes' Party Shuffle?

There might be a few defecting record labels on iTunes' horizon. After Universal Music Group's exclusive contract with Apple's digital-music service ran out earlier this year, UMG proposed a month-to-month contract that allowed the label to entertain offers from other music services. At year's end, according to the Washington Post, Warner Music Group may consider a similar contract. It's the latest move by the industry to tip the balance of power between themselves and Steve Jobs. Apple has had the upper-hand thus far, setting a price limit on MP3s and videos that some labels believe is under market value.

Considering that up to 20 percent of music revenue comes from digital sales, in the wake of declining CD sales, labels are eager to gain leverage to get Jobs to eliminate his price limit. That leverage, besides the elimination of exclusivity, is the iPodization of TV shows. NBC (a partner company of Universal) and iTunes are in the midst of a price war, which will likely result in banishment of all NBC/USA/Bravo shows when the contract ends December 1st. Can UMG be far behind? We know there are a fistful of competitors eager to fight for iTunes' throne. Or will Apple finally yield to industry requests to raise prices?

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Song Stories

“All Along the Watchtower”

The Jimi Hendrix Experience | 1968

Jimi Hendrix got hold of Bob Dylan's early John Wesley Harding tapes and in late 1967 recorded a version of "All Along the Watchtower" with the Experience in London. Dissatisfied with that first development, Hendrix brought those tapes with him to New York in early 1968 when he began work on Electric Ladyland. Eddie Kramer, Hendrix's engineer at the time, told Rolling Stone that Hendrix "was still looked upon by his basically white audience as the mammoth black guitar hero. There was a constant fight within him to expand himself." Hendrix's successful take on Dylan's work has long been recognized by the songwriter. "I liked Jimi Hendrix's record of this and ever since he died I've been doing it that way," Dylan wrote in the liner notes to his Biograph box set. "Strange how when I sing it, I always feel it's a tribute to him in some kind of way."

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