iPod, Zune: Magnets for stolen music?

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Actually, you're both wrong

It is a bit of a shakedown, but it's not how Malik is claiming it to be. It's a tactic by Microsoft to lessen Apple's power in the market. They're willing to take a huge loss on the Zune, just as an effort to make Apple less powerful, to give Apple less of a presence, to stop Apple from being the driving force in digital entertainment.

There's no reason whatsoever why a device maker should have to pay a content company a fee just to make a device. The content company gets paid when the content is purchased. If this is the way things are going, then all cd burner companies, all computers, all cel phones, heck, any electronic storage device should be obligated to pay the RIAA a fee. After all, those things could potentially hold pirated material.

So what's obviously happening here is that MS is offering more to the RIAA companies in an attempt to woo them away from Apple, or at the very least, to add to their demands when it comes time to renegotiate with Apple. If this becomes a real demand then either 1) Apple pays it and loses a chunk of their profits, or 2) Apple refuses to pay it and loses access to content for the iTunes store. So MS wins. They continue to lose money on Zune, but Apple is weakened.

More likely though, Zune will not see much market traction, the labels will go to Apple with this demand, and like the last set of demands the RIAA made, Apple will refuse to cave.

Posted by: tic swayback   Posted on: 11/09/06 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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