The Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) in Washington ruled Thursday that music publishers and artists are entitled to a royalty payment of just more than nine cents for each track sold online. In addition, the CRB established a royalty rate of 24 cents for composition used as ringtones.

The ruling is the first to formally set up a rate for digital downloads. Until now, online stores such as Apple’s iTunes Store had been paying the same rate paid to

artists for CD tracks. The new ruling will remain in place until 2012, bringing a level of predictability to the online music industry.

The CRB’s decision additionally brings to a close the brief but entertaining drama sparked by Apple’s comments that it might shutter the iTunes Store rather than swallow a royalty rate increase. The implicit threat had received a lot of attention recently, but was derided by some analysts, who noted […]

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