Billboard is reporting that Apple has started to push back against music labels that have worked out exclusive deals with Amazon in exchange for being featured on the online retailers MP3 Daily Deal.
In some cases, the labels provide Amazon with new music a day before its sold elsewhere, and the labels push marketing around the Web. The music then gets promoted at the top of the Amazon music download page. The tiff between the media giants reportedly goes back to the fall of 2009, when Amazon sold Mariah Carey's new album for $5.99 a day before its release date.
Sources say that iTunes representatives have been urging labels to rethink their participation in the Amazon promotion and that they have backed up those warnings by withdrawing marketing support for certain releases featured as Daily Deals.
In response, label executives at Capitol, Capitol Nashville and Jive recently opted against participating in Daily Deal promotions they had been considering for Corinne Bailey Rae's The Sea, Lady Antebellum's Need You Now and Ke$has Animal, sources say.
An executive at Sony Music Entertainment denied that Jive had ever considered participating in a Daily Deal promotion for Animal. Representatives for Apple and EMI declined to comment.
The iTunes Store dominates the music market, becoming the worlds largest music retailer in the short time since it opened in 2003, and labels have largely been forced to bend to Apples demands.
In some cases, the labels provide Amazon with new music a day before its sold elsewhere, and the labels push marketing around the Web. The music then gets promoted at the top of the Amazon music download page. The tiff between the media giants reportedly goes back to the fall of 2009, when Amazon sold Mariah Carey's new album for $5.99 a day before its release date.
Sources say that iTunes representatives have been urging labels to rethink their participation in the Amazon promotion and that they have backed up those warnings by withdrawing marketing support for certain releases featured as Daily Deals.
In response, label executives at Capitol, Capitol Nashville and Jive recently opted against participating in Daily Deal promotions they had been considering for Corinne Bailey Rae's The Sea, Lady Antebellum's Need You Now and Ke$has Animal, sources say.
An executive at Sony Music Entertainment denied that Jive had ever considered participating in a Daily Deal promotion for Animal. Representatives for Apple and EMI declined to comment.
The iTunes Store dominates the music market, becoming the worlds largest music retailer in the short time since it opened in 2003, and labels have largely been forced to bend to Apples demands.
