Drudge: Universal Music will not renew iTunes contract

98% of the items on drudgereport.com are just links to other news sources. The other 2% are items that he's heard through his contacts and almost always followed up with items from reputable news sources. The flashes sometimes might arguably pan out to have a slightly different spin but that's still better than a lot of news reporting out there.

http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=53532

QUOTE:
". . . but industry analysts said there's too much at stake for both sides not to continue discussions. "I can't see how it would be to either company's advantage not to maintain this relationship," said Tim Deal, a senior analyst with Pike & Fischer. "I'd be hard pressed to think the companies wouldn't resolve these issues."


Guess who bought in over the last few days....... market manipulation.... and now on Wed. AAPL stock is up $5.00.

cdn_apl_fanboi sez:
> What Universal is saying here is they won't relinquish control of their
> product to one dominant reseller no matter how popular, and it's in
> their interest to hold on to whatever power they have left.

That battle has been fought. The labels lost.

Rolling Stone, Oct. 12, 2004
Biggest U.S. record retailer battles record labels over prices
"This wasn't framed as a gentle negotiation," says one label rep. "It's a line in the sand -- you don't do this, then the threat is this." (Wal-Mart denies these claims.) As a result, all of the major labels agreed to supply some popular albums to Wal-Mart's $9.72 program. "We're in such a competitive world, and you can't reach consumers if you're not in Wal-Mart," admits another label executive.

more at: http://tinyurl.com/3yzvky

Drudge=sensationalist hack, yellow journalist, right-wing truth-bender.

Love iTunes or hate the labels - either way, "not all songs and albums are equal" is a difficult point to argue against. It makes sense that UMG would do everything possible to exert more control over the pricing of their product.

I hate these companies. They're making a ton of money out of iTunes, and they decide instead to try to screw Apple over.
I hate to tell them, but if people can't get their music from iTunes, they don't go out and buy the CD, they find a nice p2p network, and do the illegal thing.
This would both hurt Universal and Apple.

@32

Why the "hate?" He's not just a guy posting some links on the internets. Drudge is a GOP operative, plays very dirty and twists the facts to his benefit whenever necessary.

And that's the nicest thing I can say about him and his site.

#32 - HA! Obviously you haven't been reading many TUAW comments. Petty is their middle name, and angry is their pseudonym.

Good lord. Why all the hate for a guy who just puts up links to other news sources. Are you guys really this petty and angry?

Great move, Universal. Cut off sales through the 3rd largest music seller in the US. Brilliant marketing strategies.

I bet your shareholders will love this genius plan to kill your profits.