By Bob Meyer

Fortune magazine’s March issue named Apple as the #1 most admired company for innovation, for the second consecutive year. Under CEO Steve Jobs the innovation continues as Apple has taken an unusual step and chosen not to sell (for cash) their prime promotional space on iTunes.

Apple, one of the fastest growing music retailers in the world, instead is leveraging their position as music’s new gatekeeper by bartering the valuable space, in exchange for exclusive access to new songs, special discount pricing, and additional exclusive content, such as interviews with stars.

In short, iTunes can put an unknown band on the map, adding millions of dollars in sales, while relegating others to the obscurity of the site’s virtual back bins.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 14th, 2007 at 6:05 pm and is filed under Best & Brightest Barter, Marketing, Purchasing & Financing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.