Apple's income per single is $.30. Apple's operating profit after network and transaction fee per single is $.10. Including overhead, apple makes a small profit from the online store. With the fee increase, Apple's operating profit would be $.04 - which I think makes the rate increase a deal breaker

Tom, Washington, DC

Shut it down.

Neil, Vancouver,

Do the artists get a say in this? I suspect not.....

Paulus, London , United Kingdom

For your 99 cent purchase 70 cents goes to the record company. The record company pays the artist 9 cents. The royalty rate increase determines how much the record company pays the artist. They want Apple to make up the increased rate by jacking the consumer. Record companies take their last gasp.

John, Austin, USA

Firstly you need to check your maths; 6c to 15c is actually a rise of 150% not 66%. Secondly, apple will not close a business that is still going to make it on average at least 40c+ per song (allowing for overheads), they are just scaremongering to protect the 9c per song they stand to lose.

Charles, Isleworth, UK

...and suddenly all your purchased tracks with Apple's "Fairplay" DRM would become unusable. No wonder people call it Digital Rights Mangling.

Brian, Cirencester, UK

Not happy with the current royalty rates? Well at least there are rates to be had. If Apple was to carry out its threat to shut down iTunes the average purchaser of music online will just go and download elsewhere for free with no fee for the artists or the labels.Greed from the bankers to musicians

Femdoss Carter, London,

Running a website does not cost 90 cents to run a website. Apple are trying to fleece the music manufacturers. The thing that annoys the hell out of me is why it costs 99 cents in the US and 79p in UK. It ain't like the distribution costs anymore.

tom, London, uk

If the royalty hike were going to the song writers, I'd be more inclined to care... As it stands, it appears a majority of the funds from this rate hike will instead go to the "blood sucking music associations," I say to Apple -- Nuke it! All our iPods will play MP3s & the iTunes App will remain!

Andrew, Little Rock, USA

here we go again.the greed of the music industry is beyond belief

chris, bristol, uk

I don't understand why iTunes has to pay this fee. Best Buy or Virgin, as examples, don't pay fees directly to the publishers. The Labels represent the artist, no? They should pay.

Labels make more money on these sales. They don't make & ship CDs and iTunes has a larger stock at lower cost.

Paul, Toronto, Canada

I think the music industry is greedy. They are going to force legit online stores to shut down just as their royalties are forcing hundreds of online radio stations off the air because of the cost.
If people can't easily buy a song from iTunes, they'll just do the easy thing and pirate it.

Richard, Columbia, SC, United States

Go Apple - Close down and the music industry will cry b/c they are not making any money thanks to your service. I'll pay a buck for a song. No more. I won't pay $15 for a crappy album which only has one song I like. Stop signing one hit wonders and stop producing poor albums if you want more money.

Sid, Dayton OH, USA

Obviously people assume that songwriters are insanely wealthy and don't need any more money. The reality is that the majority of songwriters receive very little for their efforts, and this royalty increase would afford them a few more cents for their talents.

C Andrew, KC, MO, US

If Apple is required to pay higher fees (we eventually pay) to the blood sucking music associations, Apple should shut down the music part of iTunes and issue a firmware update allowing all iPods to play any music from any source. Mass pirating returns. Music industry learns a greed lesson.

Bob Forsberg, Lake Forest, USA

Regardless of whether ripping music from Youtube is illegal (it is), Don, I'm sure you have a great, high-quality sounding music collection. I'm being sarcastic, because audio sounds like total crap when you convert it from Youtube. Way to beat 'em- with low-rent, trashy music you have to endure.

Kasey, FL, USA

Bottom line is that if Apple don't make a profit, they'll shut it down. Truth is that iTunes is the only truly successful online retail model, and a legitimate alternative to ripping off tracks. If the industry loses iTunes, it's shot itself in both feet. And the head.

Ross, Ripon, UK

Greg from Atlanta, USA:

No, iTunes isn't the only source I have to download music for my iPod players. I can easily download them from other sources, and import them in as MP3 files. I personally rarely, as in MAYBE once a month, use the iTunes store to begin with.

Tod, Nashville, USA

Ya, now way Apple would pull all labels who refuse to eat the additional costs, just like there's no way they would kick NBC off the iTunes store over price disagreements?

This may be to ensure that the labels eat the costs or to sway the CRB but don't think they will not do it

Doug Petrosky, San Diego, United States

Not sure if I can agree that the costs are high for Apple. Seems to me that iTunes along with other online stores charge the same as one would pay when buying a CD. Now I assume that an online store should be cheaper to run than bulk transport. Besides an iPod can use mp3 so just use another store.

M Chisholm, Dereham, UK

Apple would not risk losing hundreds of millions of dollars in iPod sales by shutting down iTunes. They may threaten to shut it down, but in the end, if they're in it to make money, they're not going to shut down the ONLY source most people have to download music for their iPod players.

Atlanta Greg, Atlanta, USA

Actually the economics are pretty tight for iTunes, when you consider that after tax, at least two thirds of the retail price goes to the record companies (who own the recording), 8-10% currently to the publishing agency (who represent the song-writer) and 5% or more to the credit card company.

chris, London,

Oh Don Don, your brilliant, haven't you learnt yet? nothing is free, never was, never will be. Someone always pays the price. You want cheep clothes, great just pray god non of your relatives work in the sweat shops that make them, they'll tell you how 'cheap they are.

Mike, London, Uk

Well if they don't want you to rip it off you tube then it should not be so easy should it.....

Don, sheffield, uk

I don't buy from iTunes as you don't retain ownership of the song if you want to move to another device. Pretty sure my iPod isn't going to live forever and there will be a next big thing.

Apple get two things from this. 1. Blame and pressure the CRB 2. Have a reason to raise fees and blame CRB

Paul, Toronto, Canada

"A little thought, a little work and it is all yours for free" Quite right! But the decision is still unwelcome.Apple does not make much money from iTunes but uses it to sell iPods.It's a seamless integration that works+we all benefit.Shame Simon prefers to stick 2 fingers up just for the hell of it

george, london,

Without ITunes, Apple loses their USP. There is no way they are going to do this - funny how this bit of "news" is released just before the CRB meet. ;-)

Cronan, London, UK

Well done Don, don't you realise that ripping the audio off youtube is also illegal downloading.
Stop any young person in the street playing music on their phone, if they can hear you, and find out where they got it from, probably they did your trick... makes it accessible, doesn't make it legal!

aj booker, uk, uk

"You want music you can find it for free anywhere.. and I do not mean illeagal downloading.. you can use an MP3 ripper to take the audio from a track on youtube.. voila"

Um, and the tracks available on youtube are put there legally?

Corbs, London,

Don, Sheffield, Uk

No difference between recording a track from youtube and downloading it via a file sharing program.

Can't believe that you actually think you're being clever and circumventing the rules - bottom line is that either way you're getting free music without paying the artist.

Alex, London,

Who are Apple trying to kid? The costs involved for Apple to run the Itunes site and for a user to download a file are tiny compared to the traditional retail model. There's no way they will shut the store, although I'd love to see them do it just to wreck their own brand value.

Simon, High Wycombe, UK

You want music you can find it for free anywhere.. and I do not mean illeagal downloading.. you can use an MP3 ripper to take the audio from a track on youtube.. voila you have the audio track and you can put it on your iPod. A little thought alittle work and it is all yours for free...

Don, Sheffield, Uk