Sony BMG was widely believed to be the stumbling block in the launch of Apple's iTunes store in Australia until finally, the company went ahead without it.

The result could signal a clear direction on song pricing since the disagreement seemed to be over Apple's pricing regime. Exactly which direction that means is still anybody's guess.

Apple has been under pressure in the US to adjust its pricing to allow record companies to charge more for hot artists, but Apple CEO Steve Jobs is resisting the change preferring to stick with the one price for all regime.

However, the recent launch of an antitrust probe into record company digital-music pricing by the New York state attorney general Eliot Spitzer is liely to cement a final business model when complete.

The four big labels (Sony BMG, EMI, Universal and Warner) have all received requests for information for the attorney general as a preliminary stage of investigation.
The deal was finally signed in New York last week according to reports.

The deal takes iTunes Australia's catalogue to over one million songs which it sells for $1.69. slightly higher than the US$0.99 (AUD$1.32) iTunes charges in the US.