Unsurprisingly, a number of top-ranked songs are now saddled with $1.29 tags.  That includes the top-three most-downloaded songs, specifically “Boom Boom Pow” by Black Eyed Peas, “Poker Face” by Lady Gaga, and “Right Round” by Flo Rida.  But a large number of popular tracks are retaining their 99-cent stickers, at least upon initial inspection.

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In the last year or so it has been tough times for the major record labels. The majors have not really been moving into the digital as fast as they should, whilst at the same time not understanding the digital business models.

Whilst this still remains the case Universal have released their lastest quarters results, and they seem very surprising to me.

• $3.97 billion revenue for first 3Q’s of ’08
• + 3.5% without currency fluctuations
• + 33% for digital sales which “”more than offset” lower CD sales
• Earnings 21.8% to $516M before deduction of interest, tax and amortization
• Net is lower due to restructuring costs
• Full press release

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• Tesco To Launch a Digital Music Locker Service – June 16, 2010