Apple Denies Rumors about Universal Refusing to Renew its Contract

On Monday, we were reporting about difficult on-going negotiations between Apple and Vivendi Universal about renewing the contract to offer Universal catalog on iTunes Store. The rumor claimed that Vivendi did not want to renew the contract without revising the pricing policy of its catalog on iTS.
Yesterday, Apple officially denied this information and Apple spokesman Tom Neumayr made it clear: "We are still negotiating with Universal...Their music is still on iTunes and their not re-signing is just not true."
Current information indicate that Universal does not plan to sign a long-term contract, and will rather continue its partnership with iTunes Store following an "at will strategy", giving Universal the right to negotiate exclusive deals with other music services, such as exclusive availability of a new song to an online music service for a define period as Apple did it recently with some renowned artists from other labels).
The surprising part in this story is not the though on-going negotiation, but rather that Apple officially reacted to deny those rumors, something rather unusual for Cupertino. It could prove that both sides are conscious they need each other, and one should not forget that record labels need Apple as much as Apple needs the record labels.