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The music industry is a complex business.  At its head are the major labels, which control the distribution of the most popular tunes online and off.  Their never-ending hunger for a bigger slice of the revenue pie has taken many forms, from representative organization RIAA's ceaseless lawsuits, to the labels' demand of increased royalties.

The labels' dreams may come true when the Copyright Royalties Board (CRB) meets today.  The CRB is the U.S. judicial entity which was created by the Copyright Royalty and Distribution Reform Act of 2004 and governs everything from webcaster fees to the cuts labels receive on online music track sales.  The CRB already has gained a controversial reputation for enacting rate increases which may put small webcasters out of business.

Now as the CRB reconvenes to possibly enact increases to online track royalties, a threat from Apple has emerged -- raise rates, and Apple may pull the plug on iTunes.

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=13111

Fast forward to the Brave New World, and you may expect to see the creator's value proportionately increase. Alas, the digital music companies are doing little to redress the balance - even though they can afford to. According to Fortune magazine, Apple threatened to close down its iTunes Music Store if the composer's share rose from nine cents per song to 15 cents per song. The threat was made in a submission to the US Copyright Royalty Board, the arbitrator which sets the rate for statutory licences.

Apple and the Digital Music Association had wanted to screw composers even harder: pushing for a reduction in the rate to 4.8 cents per track, or six per cent of "applicable revenues". Since Apple barely makes a profit on its iTunes store, that would be six per cent of bugger all being returned to the people who actually make the music.

Cheering them on are the major record labels.

"The record companies are in no mood to pay the proposed royalty increase out of their pockets," Fortune's Devin Leonard notes. They've pushed for a rate of eight per cent of wholesale revenues of music sales.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/10/01 … es_threat/