Apple is trying to lure music labels away from Amazon’s Daily Deal, according to “Billboard” magazine (http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/magazine/upfront/e3i5207f9d259b81f62d46a894f7a55e1bd). With the Daily Deal, music labels offer Amazon new music a day before it’s sold elsewhere, and the music then gets promoted at the top of the Amazon music download page.
In exchange for a Daily Deal promotion on a new album, Amazon has been asking labels to provide it with a one-day exclusive before street date and such digital marketing support as a banner ad on an artist’s MySpace page and messages on label and artist Web sites and social network feeds. And Apple doesn’t like that.
“Billboard” quotes unnamed sources as saying that iTunes representatives have been urging labels to rethink their participation in the Amazon promotion and that they’ve backed up those warnings by withdrawing marketing support for certain releases featured as Daily Deals. In response, label executives at Capitol, Capitol Nashville and Jive recently opted against participating in Daily Deal promotions they had been considering for Corinne Bailey Rae’s “The Sea,” Lady Antebellum’s “Need You Now” and Ke$ha’s “Animal,” sources told the music industry publication.