They lost control of it with the ipod and apple music. Any song $0.99. That was the end of the record labels dictating prices. If they held out and refused a

They lost control of it with the ipod and apple music. Any song $0.99. That was the end of the record labels dictating prices. If they held out and refused apple, they would lose to the other labels. The market was too big. The ipod, too popular. They were already feeling the squeeze from retail. Consolidation of record stores left large retailers like Walmart with the bulk of sales. CD sales would account for < 1% of Walmart's total sales but would account for > 40% of the labels sales. This allowed Walmart to undercut the labels own prices and sell CDs as a loss leader putting downward pressure on overall prices.