"We are still negotiating with Universal," Apple spokesman Tom Neumayr said. "Their music is still on iTunes and their not re-signing is just not true."

Yesterday it [url=http://www.macsimumnews.com/index.php/archive/universal_apple_at_odds_over_music_on_itunes]was reported[/url] that Universal Music Group of Vivendi, the world’s biggest music corporation, last week notified Apple that it will not renew its annual contract to sell music through iTunes. Instead, Universal supposedly planned to market music to Apple at will, a move that could allow Universal to remove its songs from the iTunes service on short notice if the two sides didn't agree on pricing or other terms in the future.

The [url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/07/03/BUGM5QPPLG1.DTL&feed=rss.business]San Francisco Chronicle[/url] says that Universal plans to continue its partnership with iTunes at will, letting the record company negotiate exclusive deals with other music services if those opportunities came up. For instance, it could grant exclusive rights to a new song to an online music service for several months before releasing it to iTunes and other retailers.