Vivendi (Universal) chief executive: iTunes deal is "indecent"

[BoyBach]

Universal Music digs in its heels in demand for flexible pricing

Discussions between Apple and Universal look set to take an ugly twist, following comments made by the head of the latter firm's parent company, Vivendi.

"The split between Apple and (music) producers is indecent ... Our contracts give too good a share to Apple," Vivendi chief executive Jean-Bernard Levy told reporters yesterday.

Vivendi owns Universal Music, which recently refused to agree a long-term deal with Apple for distributing its music through iTunes.

Universal is currently the world's largest major label with an approximate 40 per cent market share of the global music market.

The company presently takes the lion's share of iTunes sales costs - €0.70 of the €0.99 purchase cost of tunes sold through the service.

For the label, the critical issue is that of flexible pricing. Levy told reporters he wants to be able to charge more for a new track, and less for an old catalogue song.

"We should have a differentiated price system," he said.

With an eye to shareholder value, the Vivendi chief executive also said: "We are in a phase during which many different actors are talking to each other. We are trying to put in place several projects to ensure that music is better remunerated. We are not just talking to Apple," he said, according to Reuters.

Macworld UK News Link

Fleshing out UMG's strategy, Levy said it planned to focus on better exploiting the "monetisation of an artist's image" which included branded clothes and TV shows.

"This is what we hope will revive our business," Levy said. "People indulge in piracy but spend a lot of money on many other things that are linked to an artist."

Levy forecast that "in the not so distant future", traditional music products such as DVDs and CDs would make up less than 50 percent of music publishing revenues.

At the half-year stage, digital music sales made up 15 percent of UMG's total music revenue.

Reuters News Link

So we'll steal your music but buy your jeans and t-shirts?

 

[zioxide]

So basically they're greedy ****s and want more money.

**** them.

/me heads to bittorrent.

 

[Spanners]

Oh what a supprise,

Music sales revenue is falling. Let not blame outselves lets blame the customers/Apple/Deli Lama. Anyone but us.

Typical.

 

[BoyBach]

'Fake' Steve Jobs' reaction...

See this article where they claim we're taking too big a share of iTunes revenue and they say our contract terms are indecent. I told you a backlash was coming. Here it is. The media guys are calling in all their favors with the hacks in the press and launching a huge campaign to portray Apple as the big bad guy, the evil monopolist putting the squeeze on the poor little record companies. Story behind the story is they all just woke up and realized that they've lost control of their own industry. Now they're desperately scrambling to get back on their feet. Of course it's too late. But they're not going to go down easy. They're going to fight like a pack of cornered rats. Our job is to control the damage and get these rats into a big canvas bag and toss them in a river. For a while we thought we might be able to herd them along happily but now it is clear that this is not going to happen. It's going to be a street fight. Ugly, bloody, messy. We're going to get bitten a few times. But we'll win. Trust me. We'll win.

http://fakesteve.blogspot.com/2007/09/vivendi-says-were-indecent.html