Ah Doug Morris, unibrow baby to the digital music revolution. His hard-ball approach with Microsoft, fighting hard for a $1 cut of each Zune sold in exchange for allowing Microsoft to license Universal Music's stable of artists, won him a place on the enemies list of every music blogger from Anaheim to Zurich. The AP takes a softer look at the man who's mission is to change music licensing forever, and not for better. Glenn Coolfer aptly explains, "In contrast to most portrayals as a lone renegade, this one shows a more accurate scenario. Even though other label heads aren't acting so tough, they're more than happy to let Morris do their dirty work."
Morris' next hardware licensing target is Apple, who's current deal with Universal expires in May of this year. According to the AP, "Speculation in the industry is that he'll seek a slice of iPod sales. Apple declined comment." Morris stopped short of threatening to pull Universal's catalog from iTunes if the Cupertino kids won't cough up
See Also:
Universal may shoot for royalty deal with Apple
Universal Music's Doug Morris, phone phreak
Universal rasies pressure on Youtube and Myspace
Universal Music Group vs. Music Listeners
1. I guess I don't understand why this is such a big threat without an alternative distribution option available. With physical sales shrinking, and online sales growing, and iTunes representing a major portion of online sales, it seems to me that Apple and Universal need each other.
Now if Universal wanted to play tough, they would start releasing music as DRM free MP3s - this is the biggest threat to iPod/iTunes - not another new player.
Posted at 2:21PM on Jan 17th 2007 by Spener