Amazon Daily Deals for Music Albums Has Apple Upset

Apple is upset with labels for participating in Amazon Daily Deal promotions which give the retailer a one-day exclusive listing, a new report suggests.

According to Ed Christman from Billboard.biz, Amazon has been asking labels for a one-day exclusive before street date and digital marketing support via a banners or announcements in exchange for a Daily Deal promotion on a new album.

"When that happened," an executive says, "iTunes said, 'Enough of that shit.'"


Billboard sources say that iTunes representations have been urging labels to reconsider their participation in the promotion and have begun withdrawing marketing support for some releases featured as Daily Deals.

Reportedly, label executives at Capitol, Capitol Nashville and Jive recently decided against participating in Daily Deal promotions for Corinne Bailey Rae's "The Sea," Lady Antebellum's "Need You Now" and Ke$ha's "Animal."

"The whole issue is a kind of interesting dynamic," a senior major-label distribution executive says. "Amazon is fighting a guerrilla war against iTunes, and now iTunes is getting frustrated because they work hard to set up and promote a release weeks in advance of the street date, and then lo and behold, Amazon jumps in there with this deal of the day and scrapes off some of the cream."

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