Apple Renews iTunes Pricing at 99 cents

After months of negotiations, Apple announced on Monday that they had renewed contracts with the four largest record companies to sell songs through iTunes for 99 cents each.

This represents a win for Apple as the record labels have been pushing for variable priced songs for some time now. In that model, newer songs would cost more than $.99 while older songs would cost less.

Steve Jobs has reportedly insisted on keeping pricing constant for all songs at $.99. With iTunes now with 80% of the U.S. digital music marketshare, "the labels need Apple too much right now", according to one record executive.

ZDNet reports that Apple declined to comment on how long the new deals will last.