I saw a Zune at Target today

[Brainonska511]

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo

Originally posted by: mugs

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20061109-8187.html
$1 of Zune price goes straight to Universal Music, won't pass "go"

11/9/2006 1:41:10 PM, by Anders Bylund

Microsoft's Zune media player, due for retail release next week, will have the support of Vivendi Universal in an unusual contract form. For every $249 Zune player sold, Universal will get $1 (subscription required) to make up for the "unauthorized content" the company expects will make its way onto the device.

Universal says that half of the fees collected will be passed on to its stable of recording artists, including U2, Jay-Z, Linkin Park, Luciano Pavarotti, and Bon Jovi. The rest will presumably pad Vivendi's income statement a bit and make up for some of the lost CD sales revenue the industry bemoans at every opportunity.

Microsoft says it is discussing similar deals with other studios. The Zune has a wireless song-sharing feature that could raise the hackles of music industry executives, and at less than 0.5 percent of the total sale price, Universal's cut appears rather reasonable. The motivation for it, however, is open for discussion.

ONE DOLLAR for a device that can hold thousands of songs, the majority of which will probably be illegally obtained?

its not the dollar, its that the company is already bending to the will of the music companies instead of fighting for the consumer. atleast apple fought to keep the music companies from charging 2+bucks for new songs or whatever they wanted to pull. ms gladly bends over right away, thats just pretty lame, why would you want to support that.

Because if Microsoft didn't do that, then they wouldn't be able to sell Universal's music in their Zune store. At the time the iPod came around, selling music online wasn't a big thing, so Apple was able to make a favorable contract for themselves. Also, I think record companies should be able to push the prices higher, just to show how crooked they really are.

 

[LikeLinus]

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo

Originally posted by: mugs

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20061109-8187.html
$1 of Zune price goes straight to Universal Music, won't pass "go"

11/9/2006 1:41:10 PM, by Anders Bylund

Microsoft's Zune media player, due for retail release next week, will have the support of Vivendi Universal in an unusual contract form. For every $249 Zune player sold, Universal will get $1 (subscription required) to make up for the "unauthorized content" the company expects will make its way onto the device.

Universal says that half of the fees collected will be passed on to its stable of recording artists, including U2, Jay-Z, Linkin Park, Luciano Pavarotti, and Bon Jovi. The rest will presumably pad Vivendi's income statement a bit and make up for some of the lost CD sales revenue the industry bemoans at every opportunity.

Microsoft says it is discussing similar deals with other studios. The Zune has a wireless song-sharing feature that could raise the hackles of music industry executives, and at less than 0.5 percent of the total sale price, Universal's cut appears rather reasonable. The motivation for it, however, is open for discussion.

ONE DOLLAR for a device that can hold thousands of songs, the majority of which will probably be illegally obtained?

its not the dollar, its that the company is already bending to the will of the music companies instead of fighting for the consumer. atleast apple fought to keep the music companies from charging 2+bucks for new songs or whatever they wanted to pull. ms gladly bends over right away, thats just pretty lame, why would you want to support that.

I'd suspect that you have no clue what the full details of the deal is. It may include some marketing of the player and music from both parties. How many music companies market mp3 players? What if Universal started saying "buy the zune" or whatever marketing strategy. Microsoft is going to offer an itunes like service through windows media player 11 - marketplace I think?

I'd imagine there's more to this story than MS just giving them a dollar per sale for nothing. No other company is doing it. MS is smart and knows what they are doing.

 

[0roo0roo]

smart? no, more like desperate. look at their playforsure initiative. a whole line of players from multiple companies and it still flunked hard. now they are just sorta flailing around.

 

[LikeLinus]

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo
smart? no, more like desperate. look at their playforsure initiative. a whole line of players from multiple companies and it still flunked hard. now they are just sorta flailing around.

LOL, yeah Microsoft is desperate.

playforsure didn't flunk hard because it's not good - it's because ipod has huge marketshare. They were the first to market with a stylish decent product and mp3's exploded.

 

[aphex]

Saw one at Wallyworld and was impressed, I like it.

However, lack of Mac support will keep me far far away. Unless that eventually changes though.

 

[Duddy]

Wal-Mart will carry them?!

*Rushes to his local Wal-Mart to see*

 

[0roo0roo]

Originally posted by: LikeLinus

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo

Originally posted by: mugs

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20061109-8187.html
$1 of Zune price goes straight to Universal Music, won't pass "go"

11/9/2006 1:41:10 PM, by Anders Bylund

Microsoft's Zune media player, due for retail release next week, will have the support of Vivendi Universal in an unusual contract form. For every $249 Zune player sold, Universal will get $1 (subscription required) to make up for the "unauthorized content" the company expects will make its way onto the device.

Universal says that half of the fees collected will be passed on to its stable of recording artists, including U2, Jay-Z, Linkin Park, Luciano Pavarotti, and Bon Jovi. The rest will presumably pad Vivendi's income statement a bit and make up for some of the lost CD sales revenue the industry bemoans at every opportunity.

Microsoft says it is discussing similar deals with other studios. The Zune has a wireless song-sharing feature that could raise the hackles of music industry executives, and at less than 0.5 percent of the total sale price, Universal's cut appears rather reasonable. The motivation for it, however, is open for discussion.

ONE DOLLAR for a device that can hold thousands of songs, the majority of which will probably be illegally obtained?

its not the dollar, its that the company is already bending to the will of the music companies instead of fighting for the consumer. atleast apple fought to keep the music companies from charging 2+bucks for new songs or whatever they wanted to pull. ms gladly bends over right away, thats just pretty lame, why would you want to support that.

I'd suspect that you have no clue what the full details of the deal is. It may include some marketing of the player and music from both parties. How many music companies market mp3 players? What if Universal started saying "buy the zune" or whatever marketing strategy. Microsoft is going to offer an itunes like service through windows media player 11 - marketplace I think?

I'd imagine there's more to this story than MS just giving them a dollar per sale for nothing. No other company is doing it. MS is smart and knows what they are doing.

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20061128-8309.html
it begins, universal trying to tax profits on every ipod sold now too. gee thanks microsoft...bending right over and taking it in from the riaa ...clever move? devious? get all the labels to tax apple?

 

[Kanalua]

I'm debating getting one. Though I already have a Dell Axim X51v that does all my multimedia stuff, and a HD based mp3 player (Creative Zen 2.0 - 20 GB).

My wife wants an iPod, but I can't bring myself to buy an Apple product (sheep). What she really needs is a solid state memory based mp3 player for when she works out, so I'll probably end up getting her a cheap 1 or 2 GB mp3 player to work out with...