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Universal Music Group's iTunes Contract
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This decision by Universal makes no sense to me, iTunes recently just became the 3rd largest music distributor, why would you reduce availability of your music in a store that large?!?!
Silly record companies.
Silly record companies.
That would be a brainless move by investors, as Apple doesn't really make much from digital downloads. But I've seen Apple stock drop for brainless reasons before...
Bring on the age where artists sell their music themselves through iTunes. The labels are doomed to extinction; this is just a desperate move to demonstrate some sort of power...
Pull out of iTunes and hurt my investment in AAPL, Universal, and I'll not buy a drop of media from you in any format again. Period.
It's a bluff.
I say call it. Let them go. They will either back down or they will actually leave. Either way, they look like the sleezballs suing old ladies and dead people while calling the rest of us thieves. The bottom line is they just lose money. If they want to take their ball and go home let them, the game will go on without their whining. It will hurt Apple in the short term, but not as much as it will hurt Universal. It's giving away near-effortless revenue on their part. How much effort can it take to batch-convert their new releases to AAC?
All the while EMI just looks better in comparison because they acknowledge the consumer's desires. Supply and demand.
I say call it. Let them go. They will either back down or they will actually leave. Either way, they look like the sleezballs suing old ladies and dead people while calling the rest of us thieves. The bottom line is they just lose money. If they want to take their ball and go home let them, the game will go on without their whining. It will hurt Apple in the short term, but not as much as it will hurt Universal. It's giving away near-effortless revenue on their part. How much effort can it take to batch-convert their new releases to AAC?
All the while EMI just looks better in comparison because they acknowledge the consumer's desires. Supply and demand.
Info from Wikipedia
Universal Music Group (UMG) is the largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry. With a 25.5% market share, it is one of the Big Four record labels. It belongs to the French conglomerate Vivendi SA.
UMG's record labels have many of the world's biggest artists [1] including The Killers, McFly, Shania Twain, Bon Jovi, Elton John, Method Man, Tupac Shakur, Aaliyah, Jay-Z, Mariah Carey, t.A.T.u., Eminem, Dr. Dre, Diana Ross, Reba McEntire, Luciano Pavarotti, U2, Kanye West, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony and 50 Cent. UMG owns one of the largest music publishing businesses of the world, the Universal Music Publishing Group.
In the United States UMG is located in Santa Monica, California, and New York City, New York along with Universal Music Group Nashville; in the UK the group has a number of offices in London. Vivendi's headquarters are in France, in Paris.
More Info from Wikipedia
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Sad about U2, with Bono and Steve being so tight. We'll see how they want to respond when EMI brings the Beatles on before Christmas and starts selling vast amounts. They'll be staying put.
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I love it when a SOURCE for any story is some masked un-named person who must remain anonymous. I call BS. WSJ just stirring the crap pot to stink it up for all concerned.
Universal Music Group (UMG) is the largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry. With a 25.5% market share, it is one of the Big Four record labels. It belongs to the French conglomerate Vivendi SA.
UMG's record labels have many of the world's biggest artists [1] including The Killers, McFly, Shania Twain, Bon Jovi, Elton John, Method Man, Tupac Shakur, Aaliyah, Jay-Z, Mariah Carey, t.A.T.u., Eminem, Dr. Dre, Diana Ross, Reba McEntire, Luciano Pavarotti, U2, Kanye West, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony and 50 Cent. UMG owns one of the largest music publishing businesses of the world, the Universal Music Publishing Group.
In the United States UMG is located in Santa Monica, California, and New York City, New York along with Universal Music Group Nashville; in the UK the group has a number of offices in London. Vivendi's headquarters are in France, in Paris.
More Info from Wikipedia
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Sad about U2, with Bono and Steve being so tight. We'll see how they want to respond when EMI brings the Beatles on before Christmas and starts selling vast amounts. They'll be staying put.
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I love it when a SOURCE for any story is some masked un-named person who must remain anonymous. I call BS. WSJ just stirring the crap pot to stink it up for all concerned.
This makes me really really not want to got start lime wire up. I mean its illegal and would be screwing these fine folks over. 
The bottom line is...
Universal needs Apple more than Apple need Universal right now.
...unless there is something we don't know about it, Universal is being greedy.
Universal needs Apple more than Apple need Universal right now.
...unless there is something we don't know about it, Universal is being greedy.
THE EXACT WORDING WAS...![]()
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Universal Music Group is set to notify Apple that it will not be renewing their long term contract to sell digital music through Apple's iTunes Store. Instead they will continue with a "short-term" sales agreement, which would mean Universal's catalog would remain on iTunes for the time being.
The exact impact of shift is not entirely clear, but record labels have been reportedly concerned with Apple's increasing dominance in digital music sales.
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL said:
Pretty sensational, if you ask me... and not the good kind.
Did you ever see one of these fictional "music industry" movies, where you're getting a behind the scenes look of what's it like to be in the music industry and they have this record company executive that is an over the top stereotypical character? And you think they can't be THAT cheesey, THAT stupid, THAT out of touch, have THAT much bad taste? Yeah, they can . . .
Worse part is that they are almost always WORSE in real life.
No vision, no forsight. Just greed.
Forget about vision or forsight, how about just SIGHT!
Let us know how that new job goes . . . .
Worse part is that they are almost always WORSE in real life.
No vision, no forsight. Just greed.
Forget about vision or forsight, how about just SIGHT!
Let us know how that new job goes . . . .
And of course the French love helping with all things from English speaking countries
Someone got a list of top artists involved here?
EDIT/ OK I see that's been done now, thnx.
No kidding. In spite of the people wanting to believe this wont hurt Apple, it actually will.
I don't shop on iTMS at all (for music, anyway), but if I did, they'd be losing a lot of my business.
Universal is THE WORLD'S BIGGEST music corporation. Everyone likes at least a band or two on their labels, I like several, personally.
I'm not even pissed at Universal, this is just really bad news for iTunes. Universal knows exactly how much money they make from iTunes, they must've just seen a way for them to make more. Maybe they'll make their own online store that sells DRM-free iPod-compatible tracks and charges $2. Regardless of what they do, they probably know what they're doing. To say they're 'clueless' really proves that you are the one who is clueless.
Seeing the failure of lower-priced music stores with unpopular tracks, clearly we can recognize that people want music they LIKE, not music from companies whose politics they agree with. Thinking otherwise is a romantic pipe-dream.
Again, this will hurt both companies, but I'd imagine Universal will make more money this way--somehow.
Edit: woops, my post was under the impression of matt drudge's headline on this--that UMG was leaving itunes
Edit2:
so they are sort of posturing to leave.
Why is this bad for Universal?
I fail to see how this could possibly be bad for Universal. They're saying that iTunes will continue to be able to sell their songs but that they are reserving the right to let other digital music services sell their songs. Am I right or wrong? If I'm wrong, show me and explain.
I fail to see how this could possibly be bad for Universal. They're saying that iTunes will continue to be able to sell their songs but that they are reserving the right to let other digital music services sell their songs. Am I right or wrong? If I'm wrong, show me and explain.
As someone in the 'biz' I understand that it just shortening their contract, i.e. making a short term contract instead of an entire year. This could be because they want a piece of the pie (AKA 'Zune deal') or have to leverage against Apple in some weird way.
Either way Apple is not a company to be trifled with.
Universal will come back on its knees and will have DRM free music by the end of next year On iTunes.
Either way Apple is not a company to be trifled with.
Universal will come back on its knees and will have DRM free music by the end of next year On iTunes.
They're really not just being greedy. They're trying to position themselves so they can be a vital force in the big change that is happening in music. Right now, music is in full sway going digital. The market and distribution model as the music industry knows them (i.e., CD sales in brick-and-mortar stores) is eroding faster than they can deal with. They can see where this is all heading and get a very blunt reminder each time iTunes jumps up another notch in the list of top 5 music sellers.
Under the old model, they were the 500 lb. gorillas, but under the new model, Apple is. And that's fair. Apple deserves to be. They were the only company out there that looked at where everything was going and what was happening and put it all together and then took the big gamble to see if they were right (think how devastating a blow it would have been had the iPod and iTunes been a flop.) The gamble paid off and now they are gradually pulling power out of the music industry's hands.
The only thing music companies can do right now is try to wedge themselves into Apple's plans any way they can and fight for a little bit of power. They've already lost the battle and they know their days are numbered. Their big mistake was that they didn't foresee where all this was going or, if they did have any idea, they didn't have enough guts or vision to make their own iPod and iTunes. Instead, they sat around and carped about Napster and started suing people which is a dead-end approach.
A good analogy that many of us will understand is Microsoft and PC makers in the late 80s and early 90s. At one time, the hardware makers were the powerful ones but Microsoft turned the tables on them because they saw where it was going and that software was going to be the real center of power in this arrangement. The smart PC makers jockeyed for a position in all that but were still subjugated to MS. Likewise, music companies are doing the same with Apple. The last thing UMG wants right now is to get removed from iTunes. That would be like MS revoking Dell's license to sell Windows. It would devastate them. I think UMG is just trying to play hardball with Apple to get whatever they can and secure some position of power in the iTunes-dominated music world. There's no way in hell they are going to let themselves be cut out of that however.