I’m sure the music panel at the >play conference will have fun with this one… BusinessWeek has a story about the Neanderthal record label Universal Music (though figurative, isn’t it fitting how we still refer to these organizations as “record companies?”) setting its sights on a new digital music service.  No, that wasn’t a typo… Universal is said to be reaching out to other labels to join forces and offer a super service at a low cost to consumers, with the fees built in to the hardware devices.  Sounds like a lot of moving parts to me, and a lot of negotiating with opposing forces.  Though Universal currently has agreements with Microsoft, Amazon and a few other notables to provide its music on their services, I find it hard to believe that the most important player (Mr. Jobs) will acquiesce to this zany new idea given the very public and personal ongoing rift between Apple and Universal.  Digital Music from Universal?  Industry harmony between old players and new?  C’mon already…

This entry was posted on Friday, October 12th, 2007 at 3:28 pm and is filed under >play, music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.