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Release Date: August 05, 2009
Genre: Games
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iTunes New Music Releases

Release Date: September 29, 2009
Genre: Rock
Release Date: September 20, 2009
Release Date: September 15, 2009
Release Date: August 25, 2009
Genre: Rock
Release Date: August 25, 2009

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Release Date: April 22, 2009
StickWars $0.99
Release Date: March 31, 2009
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Bloons $0.99
Release Date: April 05, 2009
Genre: Games

Discover New Music

  • The Wall (Deluxe Packaging Digitally Remastered)

    • 10 out of 10
    • Pink Floyd
    • Okay, someone had to say it, and though others on the iPO staff are more qualified to review this album, I decided the time was now. This is the quintessential concept album. Though others came before
  • Machine Gun Etiquette

    • 8 out of 10
    • The Damned
    • Punk rock is mostly associated with three chords and a bad attitude, but the Damned were one of the few bands of the era bent on bringing musicianship and a good sense of humor to the scene. And while
  • The Stooges

    • 8 out of 10
    • The Stooges
    • Another pillar of my musical foundations, The Stooges' first album is one those records whose influence far outweighed its popularity. Like The Velvet Underground & Nico, hordes of people wh

  • Pretty Hate Machine

    • 8 out of 10
    • Nine Inch Nails
    • For years I wanted to make music that sounded like something between Love and Rockets and Ministry. In 1989, Trent Reznor beat me to it with this genre-defining album, and it smacked me upside the hea
  • Zooropa

    • 10 out of 10
    • U2
    • This record is perhaps U2's finest hour, yet it has been forgotten as a strange by-product of the ZooTV tour's overload, and is generally regarded by most fans as a poor effort. It is this sentiment t

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News

Universal Looking for Short-term iTunes Deal

Universal Music Group, the world’s largest music corporation, has decided to flex its muscles in negotiations with Apple over its annual contract to sell music through the iTunes Store. Instead of a new annual contract, Universal is looking to move to short-term contracts that allow the company to provide music to the iTunes Store "at will," according to the New York Times.

Universal’s move is an attempt to take back some of the control Apple now has over online music distribution and pricing. Apple has been firm on its US$0.99 per song, although it recently added a new $1.29 price point for higher audio quality copy protection-free tracks.

Music labels, however, want to charge more for popular songs in hopes of increasing declining revenues - a move that could push legitimate music purchasers to illegal music sharing networks.

Entertainment lawyer Ken Hertz commented "The record companies now have to figure out how to stimulate competition without alienating Steve Jobs, and they need to do that while Steve Jobs still has an incentive to keep them at the table."

Universal may find, however, that it doesn’t have as much pull as it would like. The iTunes Store is now the number 3 music retailer behind Wal-Mart and Best Buy, and other music labels like Sony have already agreed to new annual contracts.

Pulling the Universal Music library from the iTunes Store is not in either company’s interest, so the two are likely to work out some kind of deal. What that deal will entail, however, remains to be seen since neither company is publicly discussing the negotiations.

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