Record Labels Turning to Cell Phones for Digital Music Profits. LA Times Reports On Motorola’s New Non-Apple Music Phone Inititative iRadio.

CNet and Digital Media Wire report that, "…major record labels, frustrated by Apple’s reluctance to negotiate on price points for songs on its iTunes Store or license its technology for rival MP3 players, are now looking to the cell phone market as a potentially more lucrative market for digital music…Apple CEO Steve Jobs has reportedly rejected record label appeals to charge less than 99 cents for catalog titles while increasing the price for new releases, and has rebuffed calls to open its FairPlay security technology so that songs purchased on iTunes can play on devices other than the iPod.

"We hate the current situation," one top record industry executive said.. "No record company by itself can basically tell Steve Jobs, ‘You’re not going to get our catalog unless you open up FairPlay to Microsoft.’ We can’t do it together."

"The labels recognize that many more cell phones than iPods are in circulation, and that wireless carriers are more open to a staggered pricing scheme. Likewise, carriers have been reluctant to subsidize a recent Motorola phone that would have let users upload songs purchased on iTunes from their PCs — sidestepping potential revenues from the cost of downloading those same songs over their networks. "Carriers subsidize phones and features when they drive network usage," Iain Gillott, a wireless industry consultant, told News.com. "Yet here was a phone that I was supposed to sync to my PC so I could buy music from Apple. Why would the carriers subsidize that?"

HYPEBOT: Today’s LA Times reports on Motorola’s newest music phone initiative that bi-passes Apple entirely. Read the article here.

Read the full CNet article here.