Hypebot’s Music Industry QuickNews For Friday April 21, 2006

A variety of sources are reporting that the major labels seem ready to temporarily give up on their fight for variable download track pricing at iTunes. Its a big reversal for the labels who have been demanding the option for almost two years, but should come as no surprise since Steve Jobs’ company controls 80% of the download market. (NY Post)

Opie & Anthony will replace a departing David Lee Roth in NYC and some other CBS radio markets in Howard Stern’s former slot.  Stern is now heard only on Sirius satellite and CBS’s move would be a coup for rival XM since O & A have and will continue to be heard daily via XM as well. (via Rain)

CD sales in general may be down, but US shipments of Latin CD’s jumped in 2005 to 53.1 million or a 14.4% increase according to the RIAA. Music DVDs were 5 % of the  total. Regional Mexican and Tejano music accounted for about half of the purchases and new sub-genre Reggaeton helped fuel much of the growth. (Digital Music News)

Just in case you wondered how important Apple is shares of PortalPlayer dropped 50% on Thursday after it said Apple Computer Inc. would not use its chips in some new iPod Nano devices. (Reuters via Yahoo!)