Universal Music Group CEO calls iPod users thieves - from Mac Daily News

"Microsoft [has] agreed to share revenue from Zune sales with record labels and artists. Forcing the issue was Universal Music Group, which at deadline is the only label named in the program. UMG refused to license its music to the Zune unless it could receive a percentage of each device sold, in addition to standard music licensing fees for downloads and subscriptions," Jonathan Cohen and Brian Garrity report for Billboard.

"These devices are just repositories for stolen music, and they all know it," UMG chairman/CEO Doug Morris says. "So it's time to get paid for it."

Cohen and Garrity report, "Microsoft is working with all major and independent labels to establish similar revenue-sharing agreements. According to published reports, UMG is expected to receive more than $1 for each $250 device and sources at UMG have confirmed that half of all the proceeds from the device's sales will be shared equally among all its artists."

Full article here.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader "Michael Y" for the heads up.]

MacDailyNews Take: As there are no Zunes out there, it's obvious that Universal Music CEO Doug Morris has basically just called iPod users thieves while accusing Apple of aiding and abetting thieves the world over by making 70+ million iPods that each come with "Don't Steal Music" stickers. Morris has just joined a unique group of iPod thievery accusers that includes Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and Real CEO Rob Glaser. Good luck snagging a doughnut at that group's weekly propaganda planning meeting, Mr. Morris.

JupiterResearch on September 14, 2006 released a report," Portable Media Player Owners - Understanding iPod Owners' Music-Buying Habits.." The report's author, JupiterResearch analyst Mark Mulligan, has blogged (see: Straightening the Record) the following regarding the report:

So this report got a lot of attention in the media, which shows how much interest there is in the topic. However some of the coverage has been quite selective in which parts it has highlighted and some have even used it as evidence for Apple-bashing. So for the record here are the key thrusts of the report (all of the below refer to Europe): MP3 player owners of all types (iPods included) don’t regularly buy much digital music. iPod owners are actually more likely to buy digital music than other MP3 player owners. Free online music consumption significantly outweighs paid, significantly more so for owners of non-iPod MP3 players. Device owners are much more likely to buy CD albums online than digital albums.

The facts: Most tracks on a typical iPod are not tracks that were purchased online. Most tracks on a typical iPod come from CDs that users have legally purchased and already own and ripped via iTunes. Tthe truth is that iPod owners are significantly less likely to steal music than also-ran MP3 player owners. iPod owners are "substantially less likely to download using filesharing software with only 7% of iPod people downloading illegally compared to 25% on average. And they're more likely to be buying CDs, with your everyday iPodder buying 2.3 albums a month compared to the average of 1.8," XTN Data reported in a January 2006 report. XTN Data surveyed over 1,000 UK and US music buyers to arrive at the data. XTN Data also found that 50% of iPod owners regularly download music from Apple iTunes Music Store.

Microsoft was either stupid, desperate, and/or sleazy by signing that awful deal with Universal. Imagine someone buys a Zune (farfetched, we know, but play along), but they never listen to a second of Universal-controlled music. Guess what, under Microsoft's idiotic deal, Universal still gets paid for absolutely nothing; they just take the money anyway... kinda like stealing, huh? Who're the real thieves here? The music labels do not deserve a cut of MP3 player revenues any more than television networks deserve a cut of TV sales. It's stupid, illogical, and wrong. Microsoft's real tag line for their Zune debacle should be: "Welcome to socialism."

It's time for Apple to start eliminating the middlemen.

Source: Mac Daily News