When Apple Computer CEO Steve Jobs walked into the suites of top record label executives in 2002, iTunes software in hand, he was welcomed as a trailblazer to a digital music future.
Now, nearly two years after Apple"s iTunes launch, record executives have become worried that they have inadvertently ceded too much power over their industry to this charismatic computer executive. Frustrated at what they see as Jobs" intransigence on song pricing and other issues, some record executives are now turning their hopes toward other partners, particularly mobile phone carriers eager to get into the business of selling music. They see this new focus as a way to broaden the digital music business, and lessen Apple"s dominance over their market in the process.