dilleet-
"and what, charge Apple more than the 'also rans'?"
Nah, that would take more gall than even the record companies have- I'm just saying that as far as I've seen, noone but Apple is making money at the current price point for purchased online tracks, and in order to grow some competition for this emerging 800 lb gorilla, the record co's have to change the prevailing charge structure.
So they go to, say 1.29, and spit the 0.30 increase between themselves (the record companies) and the online song resellers. Suddenly Napster/Rhapsody/etc's margin doubles, and they survive. Apple's margin doubles too, but now they've got viable competition. If I were Steve, I'd fight it too.
Course, the other option that would work would be for the record co's to drop their standard "wholesale" per-track price to give the smaller fish some breathing room at 0.99. But then Steve could (and likely would, I think) drop iTMS' retail price to keep the prevailing margin where it's at.
And besides, can you imagine the record co's actually dropping their price? Nah, I can't either.
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