In today's New York Times, Tim Arango tells a story of a heated conversation between Sony Music's Rolf Schmidt-Holtz and Steve Jobs on Christmas Eve -- one that "ricocheted around the music industry."

Apparently, before the announcement at Macworld, all the labels except Sony had agreed to a new pricing deal. Sony wanted the new pricing to take effect immediately after the announcement, but Jobs wanted a longer rollout. After the phone call, according to the Times, Sony agreed to the longer waiting period.

During this time, Jobs was allegedly on medical leave, recuperating at home from his much-publicized illness. Arango notes that Jobs' point-man on music industry relations, Eddie Cue, and Apple's entire staff "do their best to follow Mr. Jobs's style in their own negotiating." That is to say: Hardball.

Music executives, according to an unnamed source, are afraid of angering Apple, as Apple can single-handedly remove a label's catalog from the iTunes store, angering the label's customers. At the same time, Apple can claim that their hands were tied, the decision wasn't theirs, and that all the ire should be directed at the music industry. Such a thing hasn't happened -- yet -- but the threat is there, and real.

The labels, on the other hand, feel like they brought Apple back from the dead, blessing the company with content.

Even so, David Card of Forrester Research offered an interesting coda to the story: "if it weren't for Apple, God knows how bad the music industry would be," he said.

[Via 9-to-5 Mac.]

Lost in the din of yesterday's Macworld announcements and video was a story from NRK that they've pulled down the "Our Daily Beatles" podcast -- featuring all 212 songs available for free -- citing contractual obligations with an organization that represents the interests of the recording industry worldwide.

The three players in the debacle are NRK (Norway's publicly-funded broadcasting company), TONO (managers of the rights for Norwegian composers and writers), and IFPI (which represents the rights of international record companies). While NRK and TONO are happy with their contractual agreement to release the podcast, IFPI is not.

NRK's contract with IFPI states that they can only create podcasts for shows aired on the radio in the last four weeks where music accounts for less than 70 percent of the show's length. Since "Our Daily Beatles" was aired in 2007 (and not 2001 as they originally stated, but that's neither here nor there) it falls outside the bounds of the agreement. NRK, rather than air the broadcast again to comply with IFPI's rules, instead decided to pull the podcast offline.

NRK is negotiating with IFPI to update their contract to match the one they have with TONO. Their current agreement expired at the end of last year, but apparently NRK is still bound by its terms.

NRK had originally posted the podcast on Sunday.

The Beatles could have all their songs on iTunes, but not the way you might think: via a podcast describing the story behind each song, released by a Norwegian broadcasting company.

NRK is podcasting its segment called "Our Daily Beatles" that chronologically tells a three-minute story of every Beatles song ever written -- 212 of them -- along with the song in its entirety. NRK offers its podcast of the segment here.

According to its website, NRK says it has procured the rights to publish podcasts of all its previously-broadcast radio and television programs that contain less than 70 percent music.

While not an ideal way to download the entire Beatles catalog specifically for the music, the podcast is free.

Apple has been negotiating with Apple Corps and the various owners of the Beatles' catalog to offer the music on iTunes. Last word was in November, when Paul McCartney said that talks broke down.

Thanks, Kenken!

Update: Unfortunately, the podcast has been pulled offline, citing legal concerns.

It's been in the building phase for a while, and now the date is set: Saturday should see the opening of Germany's first official Apple Store, on Rosenstraße in beautiful Munich. No word yet on whether the German retail employees will be applauding and cheering the first customers at 10 am, but we sure hope so. Perhaps the commemorative t-shirts will be printed with "Hallo, Ich Bin Ein Mac."

Coverage (auf Deutsch) of the press opener is here, and a very nice Flickr set of photos from inside the store is here. If you are attending the Saturday store opening, send in your reports in the comments.

Thanks Yosi, Killian and Chris!

Just because Apple aficionados have historically been willing to pay a modest premium for the world's best computers, music players and cellphones, that doesn't mean they don't enjoy the occasional bargain as much as their Windows-using, Zune-toting, Blackberry-typing brethren. In the spirit of healthy holiday consumerism, here's our list (far from comprehensive) of a few select deals for the Black Friday sales. You can get full-on shop-till-you-drop coverage at dealmac.com, and quick overviews from Gizmodo and dealNN.

Naturally, Amazon and Newegg both have big discounts on most gear for today -- not all of it is good for Macheads but there are plenty of treats on the hard drive, headphone and camera front. Amazon is selling SwissGear backpacks for $24, which is tempting, and shows the iPod touch 8GB at $209; that's likely to be matched by the Apple Store's one-day discount as it rolls around the globe. Newegg has the usual excellent pricing on hard drives and flash memory, although not much on the 'secret deals page' is overly Apple-oriented; $19 for an 8 GB flash drive might raise some eyebrows and liberate some funds, though.

The heat on hardware is also clearly set to 'high' with the discounts from Best Buy, MacMall and MacConnection. Right now MacConnection is showing the best deal on my benchmark machine (the midrange MacBook unibody), with a selling price of $1149 -- keep an eye on the other sites too, as MacMall is right behind at $1179.

If you love to watch TV on your shiny Mac screen, there's a deal for you too. Elgato is offering $50 off of the $149 EyeTV Hybrid HDTV tuner and DVR software bundle today. This is a particularly good item for anyone who has an older analog TV in a spot where they don't have cable or satellite but they do have a computer -- it's a great way to get through the digital transition in February of 2009, as domestic US television drops its analog signals for good.

Nobody can live by hardware alone, though, and there are plenty of software and accessory vendors who want to grab their fair share of your gift budget. A few of note below...

At the Austin Maker Faire last month, careful observers noted a small addition to a miniature main street created by the Texas LEGO User Group: An Apple retail store, complete with products inside.

TexLUG created a town and space-themed layout that included working trains and motors. Other photos of their impressive handiwork are available on Flickr. You might also enjoy this attempt at a Lego Apple Store, accessories sold separately.