On the Universal Deal

re: On the Universal Deal

DLF — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 20:52:57 GMT

Two things:

<<< now, before you knocking universal itself, consider this. do you like gnarls barkley? with universal. queens of the stone age? on universal. sting? on universal. 50 cent? yep. my favorite band right now is tokyo police club. their first EP: distributed by universal. so we're about good partnerships. >>>

No, I loathe every one of the aforementioned.

<< we need a new set of rules :) >>

Sure do. And record companies aren't included.

re: On the Universal Deal

musicthief — Wed, 15 Nov 2006 16:22:07 GMT

I will now buy a Zune because all of the music I have been stealing by downloading online will be covered by the de facto license Microsoft and Universal created when they added the license surcharge onto the cost of the Zune.

I figure I'm getting off cheap as I think I have in excess of 20,000 songs, all downloaded, all free and all covered!

What's better than that?

Thank you Microsoft and Universal for giving me a guilt free, honorable way to continue adding to my collection all the while insuring that the artists are completely compensated for their time and trouble.

musicthief.

re: On the Universal Deal

Matt — Mon, 13 Nov 2006 17:31:14 GMT

I don't see how the artists CAN see any of the UMG cut, uunless it is evenly distributed to each artist under the UMG label? I could understand it if they demanded a cut of every tune/video sold, but this way seems unworkable. As I said, a similar thing happened with YouTube, and the publisher just ended up keeping the proceeds. It's good that you are in talks with the indie lot too though. The whole MS bashing I've tried to avoid of late because I genuinely think that they have done great things, particularly with Live, over the last few years. I still intend on getting a Zune because I'd rather eat my own spleen than use iTunes again. Sadly there is no nano equivilent as yet so the non-techy girlfriend will be getting one of those for Christmas.

Come on! You're telling me that 10 months isn't long enough to turn around a complete MP3 package as well as a mini offering? rubbish! ;)

re: On the Universal Deal

David — Mon, 13 Nov 2006 10:13:24 GMT

Greedy? I'll show you greedy!

Even the 'user' comments here are written by marketing! Awful, awful stuff.

re: On the Universal Deal

Diego — Mon, 13 Nov 2006 08:56:24 GMT

This is weakness and you're just bending to the Music Mafia. Steve Jobs is someone who stands up to the music industry and changed the whole game for everyone. All you can do is pay the music industry they extortion demands? Weak.

re: On the Universal Deal

convert zune dvd — Mon, 13 Nov 2006 04:32:53 GMT

Microsoft's iPod competitor, Zune,

re: On the Universal Deal

turtleJP — Mon, 13 Nov 2006 03:51:06 GMT

It is in my opinion that MS got pwnd on this one. No other DAP player that I know of pays this tax/roalty.

All of the reasoning/excuses behind it are paper thin. I would call this a forced partnership at best with artists getting jack in the end. I'd love to see the formual to see which artist gets what cut in the end let's see. Jonh Mayer you get a check for $2.00. Tracy Chapman here is a $1.38 for you.

What next Ahead giving a couple of bucks to the BSA for every copy Nero sold. After all we all know that Nero is only used to pirate software anyway. (Tounge firmly planted in cheek)

TurtleJP

re: On the Universal Deal

admin — Sun, 12 Nov 2006 22:10:59 GMT

Matt, thanks for commenting. re: "No artist will see a any of that money." actually they will. please don't assume that not disclosing the details of a deal = artists won't get paid.

I know the tendency is to jump on the bandwagon, assume the worst, and bash "Micro$oft". Sure, some of that is warranted and I want to see you post honest stuff here.

We've got a long ways to go, being a responsible partner to labels, a company who supports artists, and pushes technology forward. we need a new set of rules :)

Thanks everybody for chiming in. - cesar

re: On the Universal Deal

Matt — Sun, 12 Nov 2006 22:02:51 GMT

OK, I'm sorry! I appear to have lost the ability to communicate effectively in English in my last reply. This is worrying given that it is the only language that i am supposed to be fluent in. I think I better give up on English altogether and start afresh by speeding up my Spanish lessons....

re: On the Universal Deal

Matt — Sun, 12 Nov 2006 20:43:45 GMT

I dunno, I mean the price was announced and no one complained, now they see some is going to UMG it's a problem. Now we all know that not a dime will go to the artists, most artists (with the exception of some massive ones) make their money touring. Mainly due to the various unnecessary lampreys that suck a cut along the way to production. Now I am not saying UMG but in the CD business there are any number of ways that the price of music is kept inflated. Seems to me UMG are just looking for a way to make sure that price fixing status quo can remain with digital media.

All of my music is Legal BlaQ, from CDs and dowloads - but I will never be using iTunes or Napster or the likes of them as far as things satnd. Looking at it I imagine I will be using Marketplace (if it ever mnakes it over to Europe) very little too, which is a shame really.

I think most people reacted badly to this post because the implication is that the fact that Universal now not only want to own music, but the ability to play the music is in any way 'for the artists'. No artist will see a any of that money. It's exactly the same scam as was run with Google and YouTube - they gave a huge lump of cash to the owners of the copyrighted video content, (TW I think?) who then said 'Oh, we've got no idea how much to give each artist as we dont know the proportions of who watched what, so we'll just keep the cash eh?'.

I'm rambling, sorry! I just think trying to make this out to be anything other than Universal threatening to take their ball home and Microsoft capitulating is a bit insulting. (Whew! getting a bit more lively in here as launch date approaches eh?)

re: On the Universal Deal

admin — Sun, 12 Nov 2006 19:56:32 GMT

Ok, a few things. One, of course me (and other Microsoft people) read the comments. Thanks to everybody who left a comment. Pedro, in no way did I mean to insult yours (or anyone else's) intelligence. the fact is, we don't get to success by upsetting before we even start. it's commonly known that the existing model doesn't make the major labels happy.

chris, we're not 'passing the tax' to consumers. price stays at 249.

"find ways to circumvent the labels," coq? are you actually serious? ;)

now, before you knocking universal itself, consider this. do you like gnarls barkley? with universal. queens of the stone age? on universal. sting? on universal. 50 cent? yep. my favorite band right now is tokyo police club. their first EP: distributed by universal. so we're about good partnerships.

Scott, as for this setting a precedent (does this mean that book publishers want a royalty on all copiers sold etc), this deal with UMG and all of our discussions to date have focused solely on the Zune device.

And I say we're about supporting the artists because that's what we're about. if this is your first introduction to Zune, then it's a bit hard for you to believe me. no worries. look through the other posts on this site to see some of what we're doing to support artists. read the interview w/ bitter:sweet. and yes, the artists are getting a cut. it'll start with universal, but like I said, we're talking to other labels, indies and majors. patti, we've got talks in place (we don't discuss the specifics of deals in progress, for a number of reasons).

anyways, thanks for reading this, and please keep the comments coming. - Cesar

re: On the Universal Deal

Joe — Sun, 12 Nov 2006 08:44:00 GMT

what on earth is wrong with you people? We have plenty of iPod/Zune competition from China and Korea with no restrictions and no backroom deals with America's oh-so-precious industry.

Put your money (and your time) where your mouth is and leave the Zune to rot.

re: On the Universal Deal

and now this ... — Sun, 12 Nov 2006 07:35:40 GMT

So if the cost of Universal content is included in the cost of a Zune, then all Zune users should get any Universal content at a huge discount since we've evidently paid for it already. I understand if Microsoft wants to get a few cents (or even fewer "points") out of each purchase, they have that right, but if we end up paying the same price for Universal content as everything else, then they should lower the price of the Zune by whatever amount Universal is charging Microsoft per device. Will that actually happen? Unlikely at best.

The worst implication of all this is that Microsoft has automatically labeled every Zune customer as a thief and a criminal. So thanks Microsoft, as if we don't get enough of that already from the RIAA and MPAA.

re: On the Universal Deal

PattiSmithRocks — Sat, 11 Nov 2006 17:03:43 GMT

Cesar, If I read this correctly, Microsoft really wants to be artist friendly, but they only want to be friendly to Universal artists - the world's largest music company - but not to all the independent artists you've been touting on this, and other, blogs, correct?

This seems like a load of crap. You're telling me that Microsoft went to all the other record lables to offer to pay royalties off of each Zune sale, but you could only get Universal to accept the money? Please, who's gonna believe that?

re: On the Universal Deal

JohnJ — Sat, 11 Nov 2006 16:31:23 GMT

Companies make deals for secret competitive reasons all the time. We shouldn't expect Microsoft to detail what is really going on, for the benefit of their competitors. My hope is that, in exchange for payment, Zune owners will get some kind of "extra goodies" from UMG, that iPod owners won't.