Songwriters, composers, and music publishers are all preparing to eventually collect "performance fees" from e-tailers like Apple for traditional music downloads and the music included in downloads of television episodes and movies. This group even wants compensation for iTunes' 30-second song samples.
iTunes customers aren't even over the recent and first ever download price hikes, but demands by performing-rights groups would likely lead to more price hikes at Apple. For most, these changes in the industry would confirm their perception that the suits making up the music industry are just greedy. This is gonna make the composer/songwriter arguement difficult to seell to the public.
But in their defense, the royalty seekers point out their position at the bottom of the industry food chain and promise they aren't out to gouge anyone. Their livelihoods are seemingly threatened they claim to ony want the fair share they feel they deserve.
ASCAP and BMI hope to collect fees from the three main areas of music downloads, downloads of films and TV shows, and 30-second song samples.Courtesy of news.cnet.com
