Music labels would much rather have variable price, so they can charge more for hits and perhaps less for older tracks,’ said Ted Schadler, an analyst at Forrester. ‘Apple likes the $0.99 price because it is simple, uniform, not too high to discourage buyers, and very easy to administer and merchandise.’ Apple scored a quiet victory over the weekend, the company announced on Monday, when it was able to renew licensing agreements with the Big Four recording companies to continue selling songs on the iTunes music store for 99 cents each. The contract renewals, coming after several months of sometimes contentious negotiations between the two camps, marks a defeat for the music companies — Sony BMG, Universal, Warner Music, and EMI — that wanted to institute a variable-price structure for the downloads. ‘We’ve renewed our agreements with the major music companies and we’re pleased to continue offering iTunes customers music at 99 cents per song from a library of over three million songs,’ said Natalie Kerris, an Apple spokesperson. ‘Greedy’ Music Industry In recent months, executives at EMI, Sony, and other companies have been pushing Apple to adopt a variable-price model. Under that plan, new […]