iPod/Zune royalties: something for nothing?

[digiengineer]

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Universal Music Group Chief Executive Doug Morris said on Tuesday he may try to fashion an iPod royalty fee with Apple Computer Inc. in the next round of negotiations in early 2007.

Universal, the world's largest music company, owned by French media giant Vivendi, was the first major record label to strike an agreement with Microsoft Corp. to receive a fee for every Zune digital media player sold.

Any thoughts?

[Bob Olhsson]

I don't know quite what to make of it yet.

I assume the folks who buy Zunes will get an extra price break on Universal music.

[pounce]

do they get a fee from every cd player?

fucking stupid

and greedy


and typical of the big labels


they should be happy that folks like apple are pushing for legal downloads and helping with the actual sale of music. i still believe that apple has pretty much defined the modern model for music purchases. universal and others ought to be kissing apples ass right now for getting it so right. and while it's still a relatively small amount of business, the amount of music sold digitally to be played on ipod or ipod ripoffs will continue to grow. so they should get on board now and not screw things up for the model that is working right now.

i also hear that negotiations about changing prices around in itunes is a real sticking point still. thing is, i agree with apples approach here. the simplicity of owning the download and uniformity of a single common price is part of the appeal. changing that removes the simplicity and therefore part of the appeal of this system. so i'm saying that labels look like they are trying to kill the golden goose by getting greedy about it. that's a shame. in the future, not having to deal so much with manufacturing and distribution but instead just uploading one copy to itunes and letting the money come in is a beautiful thing all around. do dont' screw it up big labels.