Sources say that iTunes representatives have been urging labels to rethink their participation in the Amazon promotion and that they have backed up those warnings by withdrawing marketing support for certain releases featured as Daily Deals

I hope Amazon fights back, and hard. I’ve grown to love their mp3 downloads, and now buy far more from there than iTunes. They tend to have more variety, generally better prices and I don’t have to pay sales tax.

As an example, today’s daily deal – Hospice by The Antlers – is $2.99 on Amazon and $9.99 (plus tax) on iTunes. Moving away from the daily deal because it really is a special price just for today, one of my favorite albums – The Midnight Organ Fight by Frightened Rabbit – is currently $5.00 on Amazon and $9.99 (plus tax) on iTunes.

My biggest worry about something like this happening is that it will drive up prices for consumers. We’ve already seen indications of that happening with electronic books and I would hate to see it happen with music as well. So much of the music today is already overpriced nonsense – raising prices will only make it harder for people to find the really good stuff.