Apple had a sit down with the heads of several Indie record labels to discuss the iTunes Music Store. Apple seems to have said all the right things. CD Baby had notes from the meeting up on their site, not realizing that the meeting was confidential, so they took them down. Thankfully someone copied the notes before they were taken down and posted them to slashdot. The whole thing sounds remarkably fair: No preferential treatment for major labels, no preferental payment, totally non-exclusive… Go Apple!
Proves once again that Apple is more concerned about providing a good user experience to their customers, rather than some other companies which are more concerned about getting as much profit as possible.
And incidently, you can already download 7+ minute songs individually. that must be a new policy for tracks or something. (look up “James Brown” for example.)