After months of haggling, Apple has renewed contracts with the four largest music companies to sell songs through its iTunes store at 99 cents each, despite the music industry's efforts to institute a variable pricing model, reports the Financial Times. It was a defeat for the music industry's big four: Universal, Warner Music, EMI and Sony BMG. "The labels need Apple too much right now," one record executive is quoted as saying.

Since iTunes was in 2003, Apple has charged 99 cents for each track, a price that Apple CEO Steve Jobs prefers. He publicly labeled the music industry "greedy," last year. iTunes accounts for about 80 percent of the U.S. digital music market.

Online music sales surged 194 percent last year, to 352 million units, according to Nielsen Soundscan; overall album/CD sales fell 3.9 percent. Digital sales account for some 5 percent of the major label's music revenues.