
We aren't exactly sure who's getting the shorter end of the stick in Universal Music's "deal" with Microsoft to
extract a set fee from every
Zune sold, but now its oh-so-mettlesome CEO is thinking of putting the same pressure on ole Steve. While Jobs has certainly had a rather
sour relationship with the labels
over the years, and has flat our
refused to boost music prices (
twice) at the iTMS, this predicament could be a fair bit stickier. Doug Morris is reportedly considering
asking demanding a royalty fee from every iPod sold now that he's already won the war over at Microsoft, touting Universal's massive music collection on
iTMS as something fairly essential to the program's continued success. But things aren't as clear cut as the previous deal, as the
Zune Marketplace was (and still is) in a position trying to grab any sliver of market share it possibly can, while Apple's rendition basically owns the digital download realm already. While it's easy to assume that both companies will agree on a ridiculously small fee just to save face, it begs the question of
other labels trying to cash in at Jobs' expense if this deal goes down -- but hey, what
goes around,
comes around, right?