“Amazingly Interesting Exercise”
11.29.06 - 04:04pm
“These devices are just repositories for stolen music, and they all know it. So it’s time to get paid for it.” stated Universal CEO Doug Morris. Well it would seem universal is trying to do just that. After getting the contract with Zune to receive a fee for every Zune sold it would seem it would try to do the same with the iPod.
It would be a nice idea. We have a negotiation coming up not too far. I don’t see why we wouldn’t do that… but maybe not in the same way,” Mr Morris told the Reuters Media Summit, when asked if Universal would negotiate a royalty fee for the iPod that would be similar to Microsoft’s Zune. “The Zune (deal) was an amazingly interesting exercise, to end up with a piece of technology,” he said.
I’m quite sure it was a - how was that quoted - “amazingly interesting exercise.” It would seem Mr. Morris’s opinion on digital music players changes when he is getting a bigger cut of the profit. UMG is expected to receive more than $1 for every Zune player sold and only half is distributed among the artists. UMG still receives standard music licensing fees for downloads and subscriptions. The negotiations will be coming up in January so it would seem we will have to wait till then to see what Apple negotiates for payments. Whether that will end up coming out of our pockets in higher prices for iPod’s or iTunes music and video we will find out. No that I mind giving the money to the artist’s, it’s Mr. Morris’s pocket I don’t want to line.
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