Universal Music CEO says iPods are "repositories for stolen music"

I would love to own an iPod skin that says "Repository of stolen music"

Payback time peepz, start downloading all the universal crap you'll ever want and never buy their CDs!!

Can I say something that anyone has not said before, yes. As a musician myself, the abilities the iPod has given us, along with networking sites allowing us to distribute our music freely. This is, what I think, Universal is really ticked about. The global climate for creativity is changing. Too many of us do not wish to wait for a record label to come along and "sign us," only with the intent of distilling our efforts in to contrived over produced dung, which we will only see less than 1% of the overall profit for, and we made it. This is another example of why corporations as a whole are infact theives, not us. If guys like Mr. Morris CEO vigilante were really honest, they would start shelling out 51% or more to the artists, and inturn, encourage better music. As a musician of 20 years and a collector for longer, I have paid for every piece of music I listen to, not because it is the legal thing to do, but because I respect the artists. As I thumb through my 1000 summ odd CD's I notice, I do not have 1 single Universal record in my archive, coincidence, I think not. Screw Universal, buy from the artist.

Slainte

Chris...thanks...I sent my letter there too ;-)

Solo

Actually, the form listed above is for the Movie arm of Universal. According to the Universal Music website ( http://new.umusic.com/ContactUs.aspx ), you should email comments to communications@umusic.com.

Great letter Solo.

According to the Wikipedia entry for Universal Music Group, in May 2006 the New York Attorney General determined that UMG had bribed radio stations in a Pay-for-Pay scheme -- you know, PAYOLA!

Universal paid US$ 12 million in settlement. Original Source was Mediaweek.

And they're going to lecture ME on ethics?

(oh, and yes, I OWN all the music on my iPod.

It seems most of you haven't read the article. One little paragraph stood out ... MS is going to PAY the record companies a little kickback on every single zune sold. Sort of like asking those who make radios to give the record labels a percentage of every radio sold, or every cd manufacturer kicking back a little on every player sold.

greedy greedy greedy greedy greedy greedy

EVERY SINGLE BIT OF MUSIC ON MY iPod has been paid for BY ME.

greedy pigs.

For me, these statements imply that from Universal's point of view, any user who rips their own CDs to MP3/AAC/ is stealing that music.

The record labels rode the huge tail of vinyl/cassette-to-CD upgrade path right into the mid-1990s, managing to sell users the same content all over again. But this upgrade path has been closed. CD is crystal-clear, digitally encoded and compltely unprotected. Why would we want another format? Our CD collections can be ripped and converted to just about any available format. Hardware on the otherhand is a continuously evolving and a constant source of revenue which the record companies have no access to. Apple were two steps ahead of the cartels when they launched iTunes. They flipped the industry on its head and now cheap content drives expensive hardware sales.

This is in stark contrast to the motion picture industry which after the boom of DVD is now able to resell the same content all over again in 'High Definition'. And it's no coincidence that copy protection is one of the key features of the HD formats. And people wonder why Sony bought a film studio...

Thanks for the Contact us link...this is what I just sent them!

======================================================
Dear Sir,

I am writing to complain that your CEO Doug Morris considers me a thief because I own an iPod.

http://billboard.com/bbcom/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003380831

"These devices are just repositories for stolen music, and they all know it," UMG chairman/CEO Doug Morris says.

I am 39 years of age and have a very large music collection (100s of CDs). All of it has been bought on original CDs either new or second hand. I have never once downloaded 'stolen' music from the interent. In addition to 'mainstream' music that I have on my iPod, I actually listen 90% of the time to podcasts where I hear new independent artists (because mainstream music can't be played on Podcasts without restrictive licensing). Through podcasts, I have actually bought more Music CDs in the last year than ever before (Lacivious Biddies, Beth Thornley, Laura Clapp to name a few).

I find your CEO's comments offensive and frankly ill informed. If this is really what the "Old Music Industry" thinks of its customers, then good riddence with bad rubbish I say.

I will in future ensure that I do my best to never buy media published by Universal Studios. If I really desire any particular content from your company I will be buying it legally from a 'second hand store'.

Yours faithfully


Solo

PS: I will not be buying a Zune either!

I must be missing a point or something here.

How is the ipod differ to any other mp3/digital music player apart from support ITMS? I mean as if creative Zen or iRiver, Samsung, or any other DMP cant be repositories for stolen music?

Now if we put this in the same sense. PC maker and OEM manufacture are responsible because PC is a repositories for stolen software ( a.k.a private )?

ITMS has actually make legal music available to WIDER audiance!!

Sorry, call me extremely stupid or anything. But a lot of these are not getting through my logic.