“Universal Music boss Doug Morris may be grinning from ear to ear on the royalty deal his company has struck with Microsoft on the sale of Zune players. However, if as suggested in a Reuters report he expects to do a similar deal with Apple on the sale of iPods, he must be dreaming,” Stan Beer writes for iTWire.

“The strategy of Microsoft by complying with music industry demands for a cut on Zune sales is obviously to try and drive a wedge between the industry and Apple,” Beer writes.

Beer writes, “Jobs and Apple have already done the hard yards and sold billions of online music tracks through iTunes all over the world, while Zune Marketplace has sold next to nothing in its only market the US. That’s why the combined might of Universal and its fellow music industry heavyweights were simply crushed by Jobs when they tried to get Apple to change its pricing model in their last round of negotiations… The clear message for Doug Morris and Universal is that their best bet of getting a piece of the action on iPod sales is to buy some Apple shares.”

Full article here.

Related articles:
Universal CEO Morris wants iPod royalty fee from Apple – November 28, 2006
Microsoft’s Zune selling like snotcakes – November 15, 2006
Universal Music Group CEO calls iPod users thieves – November 11, 2006
Following Zune deal, Universal expected to demand iPod royalties from Apple – November 10, 2006
Microsoft to pay Universal for every Zune sold – November 09, 2006