Apple's US royalty threats have left a bitter taste.

FOR A COMPANY WHOSE USUAL RESPONSE to press inquiries is "no comment" or less, Apple can certainly generate publicity.

On the eve of Comes With Music - the biggest digital roll-out of the year - it was Apple, not the Nokia initiative, that was attracting the headlines as it emerged that the iTunes operator had threatened to pull the plug on its digital store if US download royalty rates rose.

As it is, last Thursday's long-awaited decision by the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) in determining the rates paid to songwriters and music publishers for physical product and permanent downloads resulted in the rates for both staying at 9.1 cents. Given that publishers were after 15 cents per song for downloads, it seems even the merest possibility that iTunes will be shut down sometime soon has now passed.

But the fact iTunes had even decided to make this "threat" by pitching itself against songwriters - the very people whose work means that the digital service and, indeed, the entire music industry exist - is disappointing and puts Apple in a very poor light. Further, it was always something of an idle threat anyway, given that iTunes is the shop window that helps to sell all those iPods. Why would you ever want to pull the plug on that?

Taken as a whole, the CRB's decisions on US royalty rates arguably offer something for all the parties involved: the record labels, the publishers and songwriters and the digital companies. The publishers failed to secure an increase, for example, on physical product from 9.1 to 12.5 cents per song, but saw off a challenge from labels via the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), which wanted the rate reduced to six cents. For the likes ...