From CNN:
Apple defeats music rate hike NEW YORK (Fortune) -- It looks like Apple won't be closing the iTunes store because of a dispute with music publishers over royalties on downloaded songs.
The Copyright Royalty Board in Washington, D.C., today declined a request by the National Music Publishers Association to increase royalties from 9 cents to 15 cents on songs purchased from online music stores like iTunes.
Apple adamantly opposed the proposed 66% increase and threatened to shutter iTunes if it was approved. In a statement submitted to the board last year, iTunes vice president Eddy Cue said Apple didn't want to raise its 99 cents a song price or absorb the higher royalty costs itself.
Cue's statement was first reported by Fortune on Tuesday.
PricewaterhouseCoopers estimates that Apple only makes about 10 cents a song in profit.
Apple spokesman Tom Neumayr said the company was happy with the ruling. "We're pleased with the CRB's decision to keep royalty rates stable," he said.
The Copyright Royalty Board is a three-judge panel that oversees statutory licenses granted under federal copyright law. That includes royalty rates for music sales. The current case followed the expiration last year of a 1997 decision that had governed sales of so-called physical music products like CDs for a decade.
Thursday's decision will set royalty rates for the next five years.This is the board's first ruling on the digital sale of music.
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