Hidden Music Strings

What does the Library of Congress have to do with setting royalty rates for music publishers? I think that's weird. Why are the publishers letting the government set their rates? Is it because without government supervision they would completely screw the artists? Or is it because that's their sneaky way of making sure that their profit margin doesn't slip because their business partners and artists can't even bargain since the rates are set by the government?

I read some people's comments about this on various forums. In some places they were booing Apple and joking that there's no way Apple would shut down its iTunes Music Store. But I completely understand Apple's position. If it's not profitable, why bother? Shutting down the iTunes Music Store doesn't means that the iTunes software would go away. iTunes started as a way for people to manage their music, and it will probably continue to do that. Maybe Apple will add into it other ways of downloading music. 

I think the "labels" are the devil. They make the bulk of the money from music sales, they are always the ones who try to restrict the purchaser's rights.  For a $0.99 cent song Apple sells on iTunes, it gives $0.70 cents to the label.  The label might give up to $0.20 to the artist, keeping $0.50 for itself.  For doing what? When Apple sells a song on iTunes, the label doesn't have to burn, pack, or ship any CD's. In fact it does no work at all other than signing the initial agreement, sending the files to Apple, and collecting the check.  And for this they get half of the revenue??

The labels can do this because they have a business system in place. If artists were to have a publishing union in place with an effective system, artists could keep most of the revenue from their sales. The publishing union would have to be a non-profit organization. Each artist member would have equal voting rights for governing decisions.  The net effect should be that artists who publish through this union would see their royalties double or even more, as the only money retained by the union would be operating costs.   Keep in mind that I'm calling this a union as in "credit union" and also "automobile association", not a union as in "labor union".