No, not really. I don't think anyone believes this one, but Apple is threatening to close the iTunes music store if music royalty rates increase. Tomorrow, the Copyright Royalty Board will be voting on a substantial increase in the royalty rate paid to record labels. Apple already pays $0.70 per song to the labels and since record labels don't want to cover the costs, an increase would most likely force them to raise the consumer's price, making the current $0.99 model an unprofitable one.
In a related story, Warner Music's CEO said that Guitar Hero and Rock Band should pay more money to labels to use their songs in the games. Activision's CEO quickly responded that it should be the other way around. Due to the immense popularity of the video games, labels are receiving free promotion, a new avenue to market the music, and as a result have seen huge jumps in album sales of their back catalog (many albums have jumped 200%, 300%, and even 1000% in sales after being featured in the games).
What I see in these two situations is the record labels scrambling around and loosing sight of the bigger picture. Instead of panicking about how to make money and trying to squeeze cash out of everyone, the labels need to understand that they have to start looking at their business model differently. How about instead of labels trying to get more money for their songs in Rock Band, they set up a system that would allow gamers to click on a song they are playing, enter a music store, download an album to their XBox, search similar artists, and alert their friends list what music they bought. Maybe gamers could be alerted when the artist they are rocking out to is coming to their town in concert? I came up with these ideas in 30 seconds, and I would really hope there are more creative minds than mine out there at the labels. The new world of marketing is all about social media and tapping into its potential. The point is this: Labels will die if they don't start innovating new ways to stay alive.