Tuesday, September 20, 2005

Apple Computer Inc. chief executive Steve Jobs vowed Tuesday to resist music companies' "greedy" demands for increases in the prices of music downloads and warned that any such steps would encourage piracy.

Jobs, speaking before the opening of the Apple Expo in Paris, said some record companies were pushing for higher prices on the company's iTunes Music Store Web sites.

By cutting out manufacturing and marketing costs, record companies already make more profit by selling a song through iTunes than on CD, Apple's co-founder and CEO said.

"So if they want to raise the prices it just means they're getting a little greedy," he said.

Jobs indicated he plans to stand firm. "Customers think the price is really good where it is," he said.

"We're trying to compete with piracy, we're trying to pull people away from piracy and say, `You can buy these songs legally for a fair price,'" he added. "But if the price goes up a lot, they'll go back to piracy. Then everybody loses."