Industry watcher Mark Mulligan reports that the BPI, which represents record labels, is going after the MCPS/PRS Alliance, which represents music publishers, over digital music licensing fees.

The BPI has joined forces with iTunes Music Store, Napster, Connect, MusicNet, AOL, Yahoo and RealNetworks (OD2/Louedye are conspicuously absent) to take the MCPS/PRS Alliance to the Copyright Tribunal over suggested publishing rates for online stores which will be 12%, which is nearly double that charge for CDs…

…It’s hugely ironic that the BPI and its 300 odd member labels are taking this action when the license fees many of those members demand from online services are at such a level that by Steve Jobs own admittance it is nigh on impossible to make money out of selling a la carte downloads as a stand alone business. And of course the situation is worse in the UK than most, if not all, other markets.