Jonzee.com

Microsoft is doing something a little different with the Zune. As you know, when you buy a MP3 player, you purchase songs from services like napster, Itunes music store,  Rhapsody, or similar places to get music to play on those players (unless you rip your own CD’s etc). You’ll usually pay a monthly subscription or flat fee per song downloaded. All of …well… the majority of online music stores have deals with the record labels so that they pay either a percentage of each song purchased, or some fee to the record labels. That way, like with any other product sold, the people who manufacture the product, which in this case the artist/record label, either sells the product to the store then the store sells to the consumer, or they allow the store to sell the product and they both get paid from the sales. You know, basic business.  

Well that is going to be the case also with Microsoft’s Zune, but they went a step further. Microsoft has also signs a revenue sharing deal, so a small fraction of each Zune  player sold will also go to the record label/artist. Universal Music Group pushed the issue by refusing to sign any deals unless they also see a share of the device’s profits. So far, UMG is the only label on the list to receive some of the revenue fee’s from Zune sales, but Im pretty sure Microsoft opened up a can of worms by allowing that to happen, other labels will most likely expect the same deal. Sounds like the net neutrality argument all over again in the music space.

In an interview talking about the deal, Universal music chairman Doug Morris stated "These devices are just repositories for stolen music, and they all know it" . "So it’s time to get paid for it.".

hmmm….

Source: Billboard, Boing Boing