HE SAID WHAT!??!??!
Red Hot Chili Peppers, QOTSA, T.I. Rock For Zune
Ok, ignore the title of the linked article for a second… in fact ignore the article all together. The only thing important about the article from billboard.com is that it includes a quote from Universal Music Group's CEO Doug Morris:
"These devices are just repositories for stolen music, and they all know it, so it's time to get paid for it."
EXCUSE ME? I'm not sure I've ever heard something so arrogant! Morris, who was commenting on Microsoft's announcement that they would pay $1 protection money to UMG for each Zune sold (or is it "zold"), also made the comment "This move demonstrates that there can be a win-win situation where consumers have a great experience while labels and artists are also fairly compensated." Oh really? So why is it that at the time of this blogging, UMG has made no assurances that ANY of the money extorted from the Zunes will go to artists?
So, the business model for the Music Industry evolves. First it was whine. Then sue other companies (Napster). Then berate and sue your customers. Now it's extort from the hardware manufacturers. Are these people ever going to learn that this makes us LESS likely to pay them for their crappy music?
Update: Om Malik's blog, Giga Om also had some things to say about this, namely that he believes we should just boycott UMG music for a week. Why stop at a week, Om?
Boing Boing doesn't like it either: Boing Boing: Universal Music CEO: iPod owners are thieves
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