Michael Nash, Warner's digital strategy chief, suggested labels might have no choice other than cut Apple's digital music sales off at a stroke.
"What if Jobs says 39 cents or 29 cents per download - what then? The industry can say, OK we'll cut him of - very few people people buy music from digital downloads," said Nash, who pointed out that most of the music on iPods is from their own collections.
But he put the responsibility for Apple's dominance of paid digital downloads on the labels' own inertia. "The industry got together and said 'We don't want another MTV'. Well, now we've got another MTV, in Apple. And we have to deal with it."