Downloading music: 'Costs will be varied'

Music giant EMI expects the cost of downloading songs from the Internet to be varied within a year, it confirmed today.

The company disagrees with the flat-rate pricing policy for single songs used by Apple’s iTunes.

It wants “variable pricing” which could push up the price of tracks by big name stars and reduce the price of singles by little-known acts.

Apple currently charges a flat rate of 79p per track downloaded on iTunes.

An EMI spokeswoman said today: “This is not about us trying to get higher prices. It is about trying to get flexible pricing.”

The music giant’s share of the worldwide market for recorded music rose from 12.5% to 13.1% during the six months to September 30, it revealed yesterday.

Its digital revenues now account for 4.9% of its overall turnover compared with just 2.1% a year ago.

Apple were unavailable for comment today.