Royalty rates hike request could lead to hike in iTune song prices
Posted by Dennis Sellers 
Sep 30, 2008 at 12:40pm
The Copyright Royalty Board—a three-judge panel that oversees statutory licenses granted under federal copyright law in Washington, D.C.—is expected to rule Thursday on a request by the National Music Publishers’ Association to increase royalty rates paid to its members on songs purchased from online music stores like iTunes.
The publishers association wants rates raised from 9 cents to 15 cents a track – a 66 percent hike. Apple declined to discuss the board’s pending decision or its previous threat to shut down iTunes, but adamantly opposes the publishers’ request, reports Fortune. In a statement submitted to the board last year, iTunes vice president Eddy Cue said Apple might close its download store rather than raise its 99 cents a song price or absorb the higher royalty costs, the article adds.
“If the [iTunes music store] was forced to absorb any increase in the … royalty rate, the result would be to significantly increase the likelihood of the store operating at a financial loss – which is no alternative at all,” Cue wrote. “Apple has repeatedly made it clear that it is in this business to make money, and most likely would not continue to operate [the iTunes music store] if it were no longer possible to do so profitably.”
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Dennis Sellers
Dennis has been a newspaper editor/reporter (seven years) and teacher (seven years). He has over 10,000 magazine, newspaper and online articles to his credit. He has also covered the Mac and tech industries for over a decade for such online publications as MacCentral, MacMinute and now MacsimumNews.
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