Morris’ Free Music Store vs Jobs’ iTunes
10.15.07 - 11:36am
The big boys are battling and Doug Morris, Chief Executive of Universal Music, the largest music recording company in America, is taking on Steve Jobs and Apple’s iTunes rather vehemently.
Morris and Jobs used to be friends with Morris backing Jobs and iTunes all the way in the initial inception. Then the pricing wars started and Morris became upset with the pricing and marketing restrictions Jobs placed on Universal. Sources who spoke to Business Week said Morris, referring to Jobs ultra-control over the market and $.29 cents per song “indecent” revenue take, recently said at a meeting, ”We got rolled like a bunch of puppies.”
Morris is now fighting like a full grown dog and he is taking on Steve Jobs. His proposal is a music store owned by the industry called “Total Music”. He has already partnered with BMG Music on the deal and is reportedly in talks with Warner. Between the three they control 75% of the music recording industry.
Total Music would be an online download store different from any other. All the music would be free. With one catch - you have to be using a Total Music MP3 player.
Morris and Universal won’t be making there own MP3 players but they are in talks with MP3 manufacturers such as Microsoft and the Zune, to have their players become “Total Music Players”. Meaning that once you buy a player certified for Total Music you have access to all the downloads you want - free.
The idea is to have the MP3 manufactures pay for the subscription service at $5 a month. It would most likely raise the price of the players but the idea is that if you want free music you will buy something else other than an iPod, thus breaking Apple’s stranglehold over the market.
“If the object is to wrest control of the market from Steve Jobs,” says Gartner analyst Mike McGuire, “this is a credible way to try it.”
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