Company wants deal with record labels to bundle iTunes library with iPod and iPhone sales.

The UK’s Financial Times is reporting that Apple is working behind the scenes trying to get the world’s major record labels behind a deal that will see the company’s entire iTunes library opened up to iPod owners for a one-off fee per player.

Reports are that Apple is offering the record companies $US20 per player although Nokia has been rumoured to have offered as much as four times that amount.

If approved, the deal would net all future iPod and iPhone buyers complete and unfettered access to the entire iTunes library, rather than paying the $US99cents to $US1.99 consumers are currently paying per song.

The reports come on top of recent news that analysts are expecting iPod sales to slow over the coming months.

Macworld UK recently reported that BMO Capital Markets analyst Keith Bachman believes that iPod sales would amount to around 51.1million worldwide this year, down from his original estimate of 54.6million.

Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster quoting market research firm NPD Group data believes Apple will reach between 9.8 and 10.3million in iPod sales for the March 2008 quarter.

But as MacWorld UK reported, if these sales figures are accurate, this will be the first year that iPod sales have fallen on a year-by-year analysis.

Analysts are suggesting that consumers would be willing to pay up to $US100 to get full access to the iTunes library while others are talking up a subscription model somewhere in the vicinity of $US7 to $US8 per month.

Apple has so far refused to comment.

Meanwhile, the New York Times is reporting that meetings between recording industry heavyweights and Apple are scheduled for next week, although these are unconfirmed.

It so far appears that while Apple is looking for a one-price-takes-all model, the music industry would far rather have a subscription model that would require on-going payments.

With Apple also looking into the future with movie rentals via its iPhone and iPods, any deal will have significant ramifications on the mobile market as a whole.

Having full access to the iTunes library would in theory allow users to also transfer music to other formats, whether digitally or through the time-honoured analog process of dubbing audio from the iPod, recording it into the PC via the sound card and converting it to the desired format, whether it be CD or another portable media device.

Offering an “all-you-can-eat” deal with your next iPod may be the next significant step in shoring up iPod sales in the long term, while giving record companies a more consistent slice of the iPod’s earnings.