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Comment by zaidf | Hacker News Reader

It'd be dumb not to.

Why? In order for that to be the case, all the other functions that labels provide need to be:

  1. More profitable than what iTunes already does
  2. Something that Apple has the expertise to be able to do
  3. Worth the risk of labels ditching iTunes

#3 is fairly important...I wouldn't put it above the labels to get together and pull out of iTunes en masse.

I'd say Apple has a pretty strong grip of selling music and more importantly, they are the unquestioned leader in music innovation.

Author again: #3 is the reason they didn't do this ages ago. Now that they comprise a quarter of all music being sold, there's simply no way for the labels to walk. Even if they all agreed to, one could stay and reap the profits. If they managed to split all at once they risk being caught as a cartel (but they never could pull it off).

Apple essentially owns the most valuable market they exist in. They can't walk.

Read the article.

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