Jedi Star

Apple threat to close down its popular iTunes Store Pay off finally and Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) has finally decided to stop the rate hike royalties from 9 to 15 cents on songs bought online.

Apple ealier this week had decided to Shut down Apple iTunes Store as the National Music Publishers Association (NMPA) had asked for the rise.

The CRB also decided not to lower the rate to 4.8 centsand has fixed the rate to 9.1 cents a song for the next 5 Years.

This is the Fisrt time the board has decided mechanical royalty rates for songs distributed digitally.

The Digital Media Association (DMA) has hailed this decision as a major victory for Online Music stores. The DMA represents Apple, Amazon.com and Best Buy.

This move will make sure that the digital services and retailers grow and help serve the customers better. Also it will help them innovate in the coming years.

Apple iTunes Store has sold more than 5bn songs online, and also the sales of digital songs and albums raked in a massive $1.2bn (£652m) this year.

Posted under Latest News

Apple has lately announced that it will shut down its popular online iTunes store, and this comes days before the royalty rates are to be announced.

Copyright Royalty Board has requested a 66% increase in the price of online music which will increase the rates from 9 cents to 15 cents a track.

The rise would mean that either Apple or the consumer would likely have to bare the rise in price. As its highly impossible that the the record company would bare the grunt.

Apple vice president for iTunes “Eddy Cue” said “If iTS (iTunes Store) were forced to absorb any increase in the mechanical royalty rates, the result would be to significantly increase the likelihood of the store operating at a financial loss”

Aplle made it clear that it is in the business to make money and if conditions are not suitable for it to grow it will consider shutting down the iTunes Store.

Industry majors are saying that the reason Apple wants to sell digital music cheaper is to increase the sale of iPods.

Apple believes that the increase in rates will affect the sales figures from Thursday if the rates are increased as such a rate. As sales of digital songs and albums rose 46% last year and with the sales of CD’s falling sharply, this also supports that people are more and more going for digital music.

Apple representative Digital Media Association which also includes major online music services has put across that the rate should be 4.8 cents a track.

Apple as it has a major strong hold on online music sales, holds all the cards.

This will only help Apple to get a soft corner with online users as it will put across Apple’s image as someone who is ready to fight against major label companies to keep the prices down for the consumers.

Apple this year will increase its shareof online music share to a record 85% with a sale of 2.4 bn songs.

Posted under Latest News