Quick run-down of the situation: Universal Music Group is threatening not to renew their contract with Apple to carry their music in the iTunes store. Their reasons for doing so appear to be that they don't care for the amount of control Apple has over how their music is distributed and want to gain back some leverage. This seems to relate directly to Apple's previous announcement that they want to distribute mp3's through iTunes without any DRM attached (essentially, allowing the mp3's to work on music devices other than iPods).
Quick run-down of my analysis: bad move, Universal. Very, very, very bad move.
It is my sincere hope (and my sincere belief that this is a strong possibility) that Apple will tell Universal to go fu-- *ahem* --will tell Universal that they respectfully decline to offer any further contractual leeway, and will regretfully discontinue their partnership if Universal finds their current terms no longer acceptable.
In my fantasy, Steve Jobs's letter to the heads of Universal goes something like this:
Dear Universal,
I'm very sorry that our negotiations had to end the way they did. I've considered your position and decided that you people must either be consciously trying to run your company into the ground, or are experiencing declining judgment as you advance in years and should probably bow out fairly soon.
I suppose, at a time like this, I could point out that we have the most widely-used, user-friendly music store on the web, and that removing your products from our store would render millions of customers unable to purchase digital music of yours compatible with their iPods. I could note that doing so would be sure to generate more negative publicity for you overnight than you've experienced in the last decade or so combined. I could remark that, with your profits dropping as they are, you've got about as much leverage on this issue as a little kid attacking the Statue of Liberty with a plastic shovel.
And I really, really could come down to your corporate office right now and laugh in your faces while using all those reasons to demonstrate why I don't have to do a damned thing about your contract terms. But that's not the real reason I'm refusing to negotiate further.
The real reason is that, frankly, you people are a bunch of as-- *ahem* --hateful nitwits and, like every other music retailer in the world, I'm tired of putting up with your sh-- *ahem* --of dealing with you. As the world's largest record label, you have been the single largest obstacle to the advancement of music in the digital age, and--let's be honest--it's time for you to die.
I sincerely hope you will enjoy not having your music offered in the iTunes music store. Your customers are probably downloading Morpheus as I write. Good luck, and good riddance.
Love,
Your Daddy
Anyway, if I were Steve Jobs, that's what I write.
On all that I hold dear, I swear that I will renounce every criticism of Apple that I have ever made if they show Universal the door on this one. At The Verge a few weeks ago, I remember Kevin Lyman predicting that a major retailer would do something like this in the near future. All I can say is that Lyman has been right about a lot of things before, and I'm crossing my fingers on this one.
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