14 DAY TRIAL // Wherever I go, wherever I turn my head to, I keep hearing about the iPod and its impact on people and technology. Today, we had music systems that can dock iPods, we had iPods at school, and even some words about the Zune versus iPod war that still has to develop until a full scale conflict will be raging all around us, but there's one more thing to find out about this little big thing called iPod.
Universal Music Group is the world's largest music company and also the first record label to sign a deal with Microsoft in order to receive a fee for every Zune digital media player sold. The fee is around 1$ of the 250$ price of the device, but this is not as important as the fact that the deal has been signed and the road has been opened...
Doug Morris, the Chief Executive of the company owned by French media giant Vivendi, said that he may try to get a similar deal signed with Apple in the next round of negotiations that will take place in the first months of next year. When asked about the shape of the deal they will try to sign with Apple, Morris said "It would be a nice idea. We have a negotiation coming up not too far. I don't see why we wouldn't do that...but maybe not in the same way."
As long as these deals won't make the prices that have to be paid by the end user for these gadgets, everything seems fine to me, and I guess that we should admit that Morris was right when saying about iPod and Zune that "These devices are just repositories for stolen music, and they all know it, so it's time to get paid for it.", but there's also another aspect of the situation. I don't think a knife manufacturer can be sent to court by someone killed by one of those knives, and the same happens with iPod and Zune - what about the people that buy all the music they are using on these devices? How can you count the losses made by iPod, Zune or any other device to the record companies?