Technology News Article | Reuters.co.uk

"There's no content in the world that has doesn't have some price flexibility," said Warner Music Group Corp. (WMG.N: Quote, Profile, Research) chief executive Edgar Bronfman at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia investor conference here. "Not all songs are created equal. Not all albums are created equal.

"That's not to say we want to raise prices across the board or that we don't believe in a 99-cent price point for most music," he said. "But there are some songs for which consumers would be willing to pay more. And some we'd be willing to sell for less."

Bronfman downplayed Apple's leverage. "iTunes needs our music as much as we need iTunes," he told Reuters on the sidelines of the Goldman conferences.

One record executive who requested anonymity countered that Apple's dominance is somewhat overstated. "The fact is that 50 percent of digital sales is ringtones," he said. "Mobile phones are going to get a bigger share of the download market over time."

He also noted that subscriptions services, such as Napster and Yahoo will gain traction.

Junior's may come to regret his lack of a formal education, as his definition of a market need some work. Last I checked, WMG had the flexibility to offer songs for whatever price it could get on other music services. After all, the market for digital music certainly isn't limited to the iTunes Music Store (or so Big Content keeps trying to tell everyone). If the WMG's vision of differential, windowed pricing is really what their customers want, then the service that offers it should steadily eat away at Apple's marketshare, right? After all, if Apple needs WMG as much as Junior would like to believe, then they should have all the leverage they need.

Go ahead, Junior. Put your money where your mouth is and sign a deal with a WMP-based digital music service to sell Top 40 for $3.