From the AP via Yahoo! News (my emphasis added):

EMI and other record companies are also pressing Apple Computer Inc. to allow more pricing flexibility on its iTunes Music Store, which charges the same rate for any song downloaded, 99 cents for U.S. customers. They have argued, so far without success, that they should be able to charge more for the most sought-after hits.

Apple's iTunes accounts for about 70 percent of U.S. and British online music sales and has significant shares of its 19 other markets. Its popularity is widely credited with halting the growth of piracy, but record companies complain that this has come at the price of a loss of control over their own pricing and marketing.

When will they understand...the days of $20 per album and huge profits from cruddy music are over. We are several years into the Internet Age. People want quality goods and they know how to look for them. We no longer have to settle for the crap being peddled to us by disconnected corporations. We can go on the internet and find out whether something is worth buying. Well-marketed junk doesn't have the value it once did.

Yet the recording industry wants to continue its ripoff pricing structure into the digital download age. Sorry guys, but we know what you did. We know how you operate. We know it is profitable at the current iTunes pricing structure. And we don't care if you get less. We'd appreciate it if you got even less of the pie and more went to the artists.

And, oh by the way, we'd like a better quality product too.