Panic! A ruling that’s expected to come down on Thursday in Washington could endanger iTunes. So we’re led to believe.
The National Music Publishers’ Association is demanding a 66 percent increase in royalties that its members receive whenever their music is purchased from online music stores. iTunes, Amazon MP3, and so on. Meanwhile, Apple says the increase, from 9 cents per song to 15 cents per song, may well force it to close the music store. That’s because Apple is in business, get this, to make money, which it barely does by charging 99 cents per song as it is.
Apple also insists that “nobody” wants to pay more than 99 cents per song. Methinks Apple should ask Beatport (et al.) how it manages to stay in business, since many of the songs there go for at least $2.
In any event, no one really expects Apple to close iTunes. Oh, but people will speculate and speculate till they’re blue in the face.