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Vivendi is one of many large media companies that are trying to challenge Apple's grip on the digital entertainment market and obtain more control over pricing. It said it was in talks with rival distributors.

"The split between Apple and (music) producers is indecent ... Our contracts give too good a share to Apple," Vivendi chief executive Jean-Bernard Levy told reporters at a gathering on Monday organised by the association of media journalists in France. At present, Universal, the world's largest record company, gets 70% of the retail price charged by iTunes, Vivendi said.

As well as a bigger cut, Levy wants more flexible pricing, where a new release costs more than a 30-year-old

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classic.

"We should have a differentiated price system," he said.

Universal renews its music distribution contracts with Apple every month after having failed to agree a longer-term arrangement earlier this year.

The music publisher can end its contract with Apple at one month's notice, but Levy declined to say whether Universal was ready to bypass Apple altogether.

"We are in a phase during which many different actors are talking to each other ... We are trying to put in place several projects to ensure that music is better remunerated ... We are not just talking to Apple," he said.

In August, NBC Universal, which is not related to Universal Music nor Vivendi, decided against renewing its contract to sell television shows on iTunes.

Apple has resisted a series of attempts to persuade it to increase or vary prices (which is record company talk for increase some prices), arguing that to do either would reduce sales at a time when the downloads market is still trying to establish itself as major source of revenues for the industry.