Can the music industry be rehabilitated?

A piece of an answer to that question may lie in yesterday’s highly anticipated ruling by the Copyright Royalty Board to keep the rates for permanent digital downloads at 9.1 cents a track (the same as physical recordings) [NYT]

In one document submitted to the judges, an Apple executive threatened that a significant increase in royalty rates could force the company to shut down its iTunes music store, which has sold 5 billion songs since it opened five years ago but which operates with thin margins.

Should royalty rates for physical recordings and digital downloads be the same? And does this ruling shed any light on the ongoing debate amongst publishers about e-book royalty rates?

Julia