iTunes plays hardball (and other MP3 news)

It's online music news today:

1. Apple plays hardball with the music industry--says it will shut down iTunes rather than increase price.

The National Music Publishers Association wants to see an increase in the royalty rates paid to its members for songs purchased through online music stores (the association wants the rates raised from 9 cents to 15 cents a track). Apple doesn't like the sound of this and is willing to shut down iTunes rather than raise the 99 cents a song price or absorb the higher royalty costs.

2. Walmart pulls plug on Online Music Store--all those who bought their DRM encoded music must back up now or be left without any of their purchases. From the email sent out to their customers:

If you have purchased protected WMA music files from our site prior to Feb 2008, we strongly recommend that you back up your songs by burning them to a recordable audio CD. By backing up your songs, you will be able to access them from any personal computer. This change does not impact songs or albums purchased after Feb 2008, as those are DRM-free.