Microsoft to pay Universal for every Zune sold

Discussions General
#1

By Yinka Adegoke Wed Nov 8, 10:16 PM ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq:MSFT - news) has agreed to pay Universal Music Group a fee for each new Zune digital music player it sells when the iPod rival launches next week, the companies said on Thursday.

Rivals including cell phone makers eventually could pay for hardware sales as well as for the music itself, Universal said.

Microsoft is trying to break into an industry closely aligned with archival Apple, which is credited with nearly single-handedly building the legal Web music world with its iPod players and iTunes music store.

More here.

#2

No doubt M$ is going to sell lots of these. And people will buy them in droves. But looking at how the device works, I highly suspect that they are going to just make things complicated for the MP3 device market, and people are going to accept the ‘fact’ that devices should be complicated, as it is with the PC industrie today.

#3

Even installing it takes such a long time.
If me, I will just stick to iPod.