iTunes Tries To Steer Labels Away From Amazon's Daily Deal - TechSpott

mldebo · March 4th, 2010, 10:04 AM

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APPLE AGONISTES
March 06, 2010

iTunes Tries To Steer Labels Away From Amazon's Daily Deal
åŽŸå¸–åœ°å€: TechSpott - Computer and technology forums http://www.techspott.com//showthread.php?p=603
ED CHRISTMAN

Apple's iTunes store has always dictated the terms of its dealings with record labels. As such, the largest U.S. music retailer has never censured the labels over marketing or promotion strategies.

But that may be changing. The bee in iTunes' bonnet? Amazon's MP3 Daily Deal.

When Amazon first launched the Daily Deal in June 2008, its primary aim was to drive more customer traffic to the online retail giant's MP3 store. "The labels paid nothing for being included in that privilege, nor were they asked," a major-label head of sales says.

But in mid-2009, the executive says, "that promotion morphed into something where the labels make arrangements to provide an exclusive selling window with Amazon for a big release expected to do a lot of business on street date."

In exchange for a Daily Deal promotion on a new album, Amazon has been asking labels to provide it with a one-day exclusive before street date and such digital marketing support as a banner ad on an artist's MySpace page and messages on label and artist Web sites and social network feeds.

"When that happened," the executive says, "iTunes said, 'Enough of that ****.' "

Sources say that iTunes representatives have been urging labels to rethink their participation in the Amazon promotion and that they have backed up those warnings by withdrawing marketing support for certain releases featured as Daily Deals.

Continue reading at: Billboard.biz

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