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If users can’t buy Universal music for their iPods from iTunes

By: Peter Chubb | July 3, 2007 | 2 Comments

If users can’t buy Universal music for their iPods from iTunes

Looks like there is be bad news on the horizon for Apple’s iTunes. Universal Music Group which is owned by Vivendi, have now decided to renew its licensing deal with iTunes. Universal will now license their music to Apple at will, what this actually means is, Universal will be able to remove songs from the iTunes Store at a moment’s notice, in turn Universal hopes that when it comes to negotiating a price the company are in a stronger position.

The reason why Universal is making this strong stand is the same as other major companies, and that is that they have grown frustrated at how Apple seem intent on fixing their price and refuse to allow other download services and also music players to utilize their copy-protection technology. The thing is when you download music that you purchased from the iTunes Store it will only work on your iPod, and no other player. Universal along with the other companies feel that Apple has now become too powerful in the music industry.

This does seem like a Catch 22, as Apple needs Universal just as much as Universal needs Apple. The question is “Who will win out”?

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  • Stu

    I wouldn’t be too worried about Universal if I was Apple. People don’t buy iPods so that they can use iTunes, they use iTunes and the iTunes store because they already have an iPod. If Universal doesn’t sell their stuff on iTunes (which works because it is the most convenient way to get music when you have an iPod), people will just steal it, copy it to iTunes, and put it on their iPod. Apple gets little revenue from digital sales relative to their hardware sales so it doesn’t hurt them close to as much as it hurts Universal. A very small percentage of songs that are on people’s digital music players are purchased online. The rest or copied from CD or downloaded illegaly. These will still continue to happen and if Universal wants to cut their digital sales revenue and have it replaced with stolen digital files, that’s up to them. Universal is still too stupid to realize how the market actually works and is unwilling to adapt to it. Next year they will lose more sales but still won’t adapt, so the following year they’ll lose more sales again, and so on. It’s like a company putting out a rotary dial phone to compete with the iPhone. It would be rediculous. As is Universal’s position on digital music.

    I think they still don’t realize that the monopoly of record labels doesn’t exist anymore with the cost of home recording equipment, digital distribution, and the internet allowing access to more artists than was available when people only heard music that was played on the radio, which was controled by labels.

  • PhilipK

    this is a very interesting development and I’m not in the least bit surprised.

    ipod/itunes sales over the past 4 years

    100 million ipods sold
    2.5 billion songs sold
    ————————-
    7 songs per ipod per year
    ===========================

    That works out at less than 2 albums every 4 years per ipod!!

    While Apple are great at selling gadgets..it appears they don’t have a clue about selling music.

    Universal would be better off licensing their catalogue to the local knitting club…..

    My neighbours cat could do better.