Universal Refuses To Renew On iTunes

It appears for the moment that Universal will not renew its long term contract with Apple for content on the iTunes store. While the details are not known about the exact nature of the dispute, many speculate that it has to do with Apple’s stance on fixed pricing and Apple’s refusal to license their DRM. The worse case scenario may include Universal pulling its entire catalog from iTunes. Both sides stand to lose out with 1/3 of of new releases coming from Universal and an estimated 15% of Universal’s sales coming from digital downloads. Apple’s market share is about 75% of digital downloads, and digital downloads are growing while CD sales are shrinking