So Apple’s threatening to shut down the iTunes music store if publishers don’t absorb the cost of higher royalties to musicians. Funny, a few months ago the buzz was about how the record industry just wanted the iTunes music store to go away. I wonder if any of them will have the stones to call Apple’s bluff.
Just so we’re absolutely clear on this, on a $.99 cent track sale…
- $.29 goes to Apple, upon which they are “barely” turning a profit
- $.61 goes to the record company
- $.09 goes to the artist.
So who’s in the best position to lose $.06 of their share? The record industry would rather see the prices of individual tracks go up. An iTunes track is dirt cheap — $.50 in “real,” pre-Bush dollars — so maybe they’ve got a point.
The NDA is gone, iPwn developers breath a sigh of relief, I wait anxiously for the first book on iPwn programming.
