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The Apple CEO said any rise would turn users back towards unauthorised file sharing networks.

'If they want to raise the prices, it means that they are getting greedy,' he said. 'If the price goes up, they will go back to piracy and everybody loses'

Not all labels back price rises and they are divided over other proposed changes, such as tiered pricing.

Jimmy Iovine, chairman of Universal Music's biggest label, Interscope Records, said that now is not the time to charge more.

'We need to convert a lot more people to the habit of buying music online. I don't think a way to convert more people is

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to raise prices,' he said.

However Sony BMG is annoyed that it has just one revenue stream while Apple is making money from both song sales and iPod sales.

'I'm not making any money on this,' said Andrew Lack, the CEO of Sony BMG. 'It's not pretty.'

Such is Sony's distance from Apple on this, that its artists are absent from the recently launched Japanese incarnation of Apple's iTunes Music Store.

This issue will come to a head next year as Apple's licensing agreement with the US labels is up for renegotiation but as things stand Apple's hand is strong and getting stronger. From accounting for 70 per cent of all downloads a year or so ago, iTunes now has 82 per cent of the US market.

One thing that iTunes will not be offering in the near future is direct downloads to phones and other wireless devices. The new Motorola ROKR phone is iTunes-compatible but songs must be uploaded from a computer.

'It is not clear that buying songs over the air makes economic sense,' said Jobs. 'I am sceptical because of the cost.'