Only recently Steve Jobs was seen as a saviour by the world's largest music labels. Beset by internet piracy and slumping sales, the music industry was in need of salvation when Mr Jobs, Apple Computer's chief executive, arrived with his iTunes online music store.

The user-friendly service was an instant success, introducing millions of paying customers to the world of 99-cent digital downloads. Two years later, customers have bought more than 300m songs from Apple's online store, giving Apple a 65-70 per cent share of the digital music market. Toss in 10m iPod music players and Apple has emerged as a giant in the marketplace.