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Microsoft Also Wants Universal Music?
rampant mac writes "An article over at the New York Post is reporting Microsoft has expressed interest in buying Vivendi's Universal Music Group, setting up a possible bidding war between the software maker and rival Apple Computer, according to sources familiar with the matter.
Microsoft's interest is said to be at the level of "poking around, kicking the tires," but it has indeed had conversations with Vivendi executives about buying the music division, sources said."
Here is a story from a few days ago about Apple and Universal.
Usually it takes M$ a few years to copy what Apple has done. So much for my pipe dream of Apple owning a record company and making it respectable...
It seems like everyone wants to buy Universal.
This could really give MS quite a bit of leverage if it ever needed it - "Upgrade now, get 50 free songs for Windows Media Player" or some such thing. I could possibly even be tied in to some future service like X-Box live.
It's obvious and clever at the same time.
My Blog: http://nic.dreamhost.com/
It's called driving up the price for your competitor.
It would be my guess that both Apple and Microsoft would want to do the same thing - use music to promote and sell their products. However, if Microsoft bought Vivendi Music, would that not somehow be in violation of the anti-trust rulings? Couldn't Microsoft use their monopoly on desktop OS's to create a monopoly in legal music downloading?
I might be completely wrong, but somehow the prospect of Microsoft owning such a big label seems much scarier than Apple doing the same thing.
Look, Microsoft seems to think that ANY device with any computational capabilities at all for the mass market is *theirs*.
Is it any surpise that they'd want to get into this too? Imagine if that happened? You thought the RIAA was bad....hoo boy, you ain't seen nothing yet.
is there anything microsoft isn't in? they are beginning to reach pokemon status in saturation, all they need to do now is have pasta noodles shaped like the m$ symbol.
"For some in the beleaguered music industry - which has seen compact disc sales plummet in recent years due to rampant piracy"
Couldn't also be the fact that CDs are still damn
expensive and the recent mainstream music scene has
sucked, could it? Nah, let's blame the pirates!
Still in all, how interested would MS have been if
L'il Stevie hadn't made public his intent to hook up
with a Universal?
Mod me down and I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine...
If they actually buy the company, I'm interested in seeing what stance they will take in the fight against p2p networks and media company's current fight against free sharing of media, knowing M$ can be very rough in the courts.
Obviously, MS isn't really interrested in buying Universal, but its good buisness to make sure that your competitors have a hard time pulling their deals.
MS makes a bid, forces apple to hike up their bid. In the end, MS doesn't buy anything and apple had to spend way more to get what they wanted, wich hurts them and therefore indirectly helps MS.
Is tricky, its devious, its evil...its Microsoft at its best.
You can't take the sky from me...
Look at UM's webpage, there's a (huge) list : Universal Music Group Artists.
I was worried about this when I saw the /. story a couple days ago but didn't want to say anything because I didn't want to give M$ any ideas myself. But I guess they read the /. story too and got the idea anyways. If only Pudge hadn't posted the story M$ would never have found out and Apple would have gotten away with it.
/. in capitals)
DAMM YOU ?> !!!!
(?> ==
I stole this Sig
this means that we'll keep on getting music for free ! I can not see MS create a safe, closed system being hacked in less than a month.
When will I end this grieving ? When will my future begin ?
...start rumors of their interest in buying out insanely large and bloated corporations, then sit back and laugh while the mindless paranoids at Microsoft fall over themselves to beat Apple to the punch, depleting their coffers.
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My Baby's Givin' Me The Blues - Bluescreen Traveler (blues, contemporary)
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Kids these days. Don't even bother doing their own work.
Well that rules out Microsoft... ;)
"Hey! Unless this is a nude love-in, get the hell off my property!!"
With a power house like Universal, Window's media and it's copy protection is dead.
Go Apple! Free music for everyone!
"Hey look, someone's trying to make money again."
"Do they use, sell or manufacture computers?"
"Yep."
"Stop them. I don't care what it costs."
On the day that Slashdot ran the story about Apple buying Universal Music, there were also stories about Microsoft authorizing a port of Windows Media technology for embedded Linux [slashdot.org] and high-definition DVD [slashdot.org] at standard DVD bitrates using Microsoft-proprietary technology.
It's all part of the same story. The world is moving toward all-digital media formats. Microsoft wants all those formats to be Microsoft-owned. They sign up media producers with promises of copy control, pay-per-view and other DRM features. Already, some CDs have been released crippled for use on non-Windows computers (and some CD players).
I'm guessing someone at Apple sees a possible future in which new music won't play on any computer not running Windows. If all the major music companies sign on to lock down their content with MS technology, consumers may believe they have no choice but to stay "inside the lines." If Universal Music doesn't sign on to locked-down content, consumers probably won't tolerate severe restrictions from other content providers.
Microsoft makes some good stuff. But I'm hoping that we don't wind up in an all-Microsoft world.
When all you have is an axe, everything looks like a grindstone.