Apple have reportedly hit back at two statements made last week by EMI. Firstly, they say that they know nothing about EMI chief Alain Levy's claims that download platforms would start variable pricing rather than the one-price-fits-all strategy pioneered by iTunes and adopted by most of their competitors. That pricing policy is increasingly unpopular with the record labels, but Apple say they have no current plan to change it, despite Levy's seeming confidence that they would (of course, Levy was probably implying that he and his counterparts at the other majors plan to force the download platforms into variable pricing in the next year or so).
Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, the computer firm denied that the Macro-vision based DRM technology that they are planning on sticking on their CDs in the next year will be iTunes compatible. Talking up their DRM technology which, they claim, won't have all the problems currently being experienced with SonyBMG's DRM of choice, EMI said last week: "Apple is nearly finished with the technical work necessary to enable consumers to transfer music from [our] content-protected discs to their iPods". But Apple are denying that is so. I don't have Apple's exact statement to hand, but I prefer the summary of Apple's statement given by technology website Arstechnica.com who said that the computer firm "said in so many words that it wants to know what EMI is smoking and where it can get some, stating that there's no agreement in place and none on the horizon". Subsequent reports suggest that what EMI meant was that they are working with Macrovision to make their DRM iPod-compatible - without Apple's formal help.