Universal Music Group CEO: iPod Owners Are Theives
Universal Music Group doesn’t seem to get the point that when people pay them for an artist’s music they are a customer and that the world around them is changing. The world is filled with fancy new things being used by ‘whippersnappers’ who want music which can be used on different devices and who are willing to pay for a DRM free product. Rather than take a look around the CEO Doug Morris has decided that anyone who owns an iPod is a pirate, and by inference anyone who uses an mp3 player as well. It is incredible to think that a board of directors would place and keep in power someone this out of touch with the customer and the core constituency of his business. I feel like I have put up with being treated like dirt by someone I am giving money to. If you are fed up with being the industry’s whipping boy for poor performance and sluggish sales then show them by changing your habits.
“These devices are just repositories for stolen music, and they all know it,” UMG chairman/CEO Doug Morris says. “So it’s time to get paid for it.”
Yesterday, Microsoft agreed to share revenue from Zune sales with record labels and artists. Forcing the issue was Universal Music Group, which at deadline is the only label named in the program. UMG refused to license its music to the Zune unless it could receive a percentage of each device sold, in addition to standard music licensing fees for downloads and subscriptions.
I had previously been very excited about replacing my 3rd generation iPod with a Zune however I don’t think I can go through with it anymore. It is hard to pass up the functionality the Zune can promise in the future but I refuse to support this ludicrous proposal with my purchase. The consumers and the hardware manufacturers need to stop subsidizing the music labels. If you want to donate to charity support your alma matter or Child’s Play instead of a CEO’s yacht fund.
If you want to find a list of Artists whose music you should avoid in order to send a message to Doug Morris and Universal here are a few resources.
Universal Music Group’s Artist Search
Wikipedia’s Listing of Universal Music Group’s Artists
Thanks to Universal Music Group (UMG) for providing an easy listing of artists and labels to boycott!
Josh Smith is a blogger, database manager and adjunct professor of business and technology. 
Wow. I don’t know if I can boycott Slayer or Opeth. That’s gonna hurt. Stupid Universal.
Is it okay that my player holds songs ripped from the cds I purchased or is that bad too?
Anyone takings bids on what happens when Doug Morris finds out his own artists are “thieves”?
Where would the world be without examples of sweeping steroetypes and mass generalization?
Josh, thank you for this wonderful article!
Buy a guitar. Sing with your friends. Make your own music. Starve the monsters.
Taking this a step further, I plan on breaking up with some of my favorite bands in response to this. Your resources are going to make that a lot easier.
Time to contact the UMG artists and let them know we are all theives…even though we actually (probably) paid for their music.
Embrace and become part of the group, draw a line in the sand and become extinct! Can’t wait for that from the priviledged who think they have a strangle hold on the industry!
UMG is the largest label out there – if you want to avoid 1/3 of all popular music then go ahead.
I for one don’t care what DOug Morris thinks – so he isn’t changing my behavior.
@Bob Joe
Excellent point and many of the artists I have purchased in the last year have been UMG artists but thankfully the bands I listen to heavily are moving to indie labels or more respectful labels.
I hope to change his behavior!
So the tyrannical megalomaniac music company gets a margin on every one of the worlds ugliest worst designed and thought out mp3 players – sounds like a deal made in heaven.
It’s hard to believe that someone with his position can bear such an stupid argumentation. Music industry needs to change, starting with those dinosaurs (never mind the real age) leading the major companies.
“These devices are just repositories for stolen music, and they all know it,” UMG chairman/CEO Doug Morris says.
I guess I’m not using my MP3 player properly. What am I going to do with the hundreds of legally purchased albums I have on there?
I’ve never really got wound up about music theft before. I’ve always purchased CDs (I have a few hundred of them) and lately from the iTunes store. I may have a few illicitly downloaded tracks that have worked their way into my collection – just like I probably had a few of my friends CDs copied on to tape back in the old days. I’ve even OK with DRM – at least the iTunes variety. I think it’s fair enough that an artist should be able to protect their work, and ensure they at least receive some compensation for their talent. If I enjoy music, it’s only right and fair that I give back something (money) in return.
But this…this…ARGH ! THIS really winds me up. To be called a thief by default – just because I like the freedom of music that an iPod gives me (and video for that matter) – THIS really stinks. I’ve had it with jerks like this, who won’t be satisfied until they have their hand in my wallet and can freely rape me for whatever they like.
Well, it ends here. FUCK YOU UNIVERSAL.
Instead of buying music from UMG artists, support indie artists. Buy your music from someplace like CD Baby.
“It is hard to pass up the functionality the Zune can promise in the future but I refuse to support this ludicrous proposal with my purchase. ”
Functionality my butt. The thing won’t even work with Vista (check the Zune site’s support documentation), nor with any Mac.
@Axtroller True, I was assuming they would add in all kinds of goodness through firmware upgrades. Those would probably cost some MS points though.
I was at Meijer scoping out the PS3 Launch last night and their Zunes were just stacking in a case like sad puppy dogs no one wanted.
If you are looking for more music to not listen to, I’ve always used http://www.riaaradar.com/
I’ll be sure to resist the urge of buying any music from this label; I’ll stick to just stealing music from UMG.
Concerning your statement, “It is incredible to think that a board of directors would place and keep in power someone this out of touch with the customer and the core constituency of his business.”
Check Doug Morris’ description in the article – he’s *chairman* and CEO. If you were on the board at Universal, would you vote against the chairman? Regardless of how stupid he is in terms of fair use law, he’s certainly committed to making loads of money for Universal. I bet they couldn’t care less about whether he understands the issues.
“It is hard to pass up the functionality the Zune can promise in the future…”
No, it’s not! This is not the stock market. It is a product that you get WHEN it has that “future” functionality you may find so irresistable that you’d part with your hard-earned money. Otherwise, put it in the basket with the other rebranded prior art.
guess it’s time 4 the majors to wake up and realize their ‘yachts’ have been reposessed! the silent music revolution has started – so to say with iTunes and the iPod. So Dear Mr Morris: sorry, but u already got a good deal over the years for ‘packaging’ (etc, u know!?!!) and what’s the 50% deal with the 1 dollar zune income anyhow? shouldn’t it all go to the artist(s), IF SO???
Those who live in glass houses should not throw rocks. It is one thing to try and strike a business deal to make more money, it is the capitalist way. It is completely another thing to make slanderous accusations toward customers. That is bad business. I wonder how many musicians think record labels are run by theives? I don’t hear many artist speaking out so they must not be, huh? Next thing they will come up with, I should not give them ideas, will be an ear tax payable at birth. Music has been around long before record labels and will be around long after they kill themselves by running in the shadows of bad business. We will be listening to the music we enjoy regardless of universally bad business. It won’t be long before recording companies are obsolete and we will buy right from the source. The iPod tax is just a last ditch effort by the fat cat recording companies to buy a few more yachts before retirement. I want my $ going to the artist. Perhaps Apple can redirect the issue by starting an artist “relief fund” generated by iPod sales and give it directly to the artist. Or better yet, recording studios where musicians can record and get paid directly by the customer. Like at a concert. It is really an odd concept to own music anyway. It is like owning air.
I hope there’s a warm corner in Hell for this soulless piece of garbage.
I appreciate all of your sentiments and opinions. But I’m about to be the unpopular one in just about a minute …
First, let’s get facts sraight once and for all.
Morris isn’t calling every single iPod-owner a thief: Rather, what he’s saying is if you buy a CD, go on and import it to your iTunes, and while you’re at it, feel free to transfer it to your iPod. Enjoy and be merry! Or if you buy digital music off your favorite site, more power to you! What Morris IS contesting, however, is the ILLEGAL sharing/P2P of music. So for example, don’t upload music onto sites, blogs, forums and allow people to download it for free. You’re not doing anyone any favors (including the artists) by doing that. If the artist needs your publicity, they’ll ask for it but would rather hire a company like Wireset or whatnot to do that kind of aggregation/distribution for a nominal fee.
Now if you know his history, Morris (aka, the guy with the yacht, the corporate suit, the soul-less music executive) actually started his guilded career as… a humble songwriter and producer right out of school. Yes, and a rather good one at that. Wow! What a new-fangled notion, folks! A music executive who actually knows what it’s like to be an artist and producer, someone who actually knows and truly loves music! Someone who isn’t all about the numbers and profit margins. So before you villianized someone, do some homework. As the saying goes, know your friends but know your enemies better.
Look, at the end of the day, we all love music. But put aside your haterade for the “man” and put yourselves in the artist’s shoes if nothing else: The people who write, create, produce music deserve to be paid for their compositions. They also should have some say about how their compositions are altered and sold. I think that people are very lax about the respect that people should have for other people’s works. I hate to see these groups work for two years, making an album spend enormous amounts of money, putting their creative juices into something that’s $9.99 in Best Buy and people would rather have it for free. For me (and others like me), being a music person it’s very hard to watch that. At the end of the day, you’re just fucking the artist/band over.
From a technological standpoint, a lot of people think that Morris is failing to ride the new wave of the future, that he’s an extinct dinosaur in the new media age… And to them I say, are you kidding? I think that’s just a wildly popular and lazy excuse for people with less lucid and linear arguments to cop out. Of course he’s fully aware of the ever-growing digital trends! UMG’s New Media dept is one of the savviest in the entire International landscape. Their digital revenues are through the roof!
Bottom line: For all the whining that onliners do about this topic, how many of them have ever bothered to pull up the Digital Soundscan numbers? How about iTunes Top 100 charts? Billboard’s digital charts? Not too many, huh? Well, if you actually pulled up that info, you’d learn that Universal Music Group is head above shoulders in digital sales. So I’d argue vehemently that Morris knows a thing or two about utilizing the digital platform to optimal effect. So please do your research. Don’t fall prey to being one of the millions of less-cognizant people on this topic. I expect more from you.
And FYI: try boycotting all of Universal Music Group’s artists and you’ll quickly realize that it’s a virtual impossibility. They own the majority of the market share on the globe, including international labels like Mercury, Island UK, Polydor, and dozens upon dozens of ventures and distribution deals. UMG is involved in other record labels that you wouldn’t even know about because they’re married through what’s called P&D deals, if you know what that is.
Now how about I turn the tables around to tell you all that it’s about time that YOU ALL need to get hip to the age of New Media and new music. It’s easy to hate the “man” and the “corporation” when you reeeeeally don’t know what the exactitude of the situation is. So instead of just jumping onto the haterade bandwagon blindly because you think it’s the right thing to do (because everyone else is doing it), why don’t you be the one who actually researches and stands apart from the rest, armed and equipped with knowledge. Because realistically, if you don’t, in 5 years you’ll be the one left in the dust.
I agree – boycott these jerks. They have done more than enough to deserve it. Support smaller record labels. Be very careful with UMG, though – they use alternate names for some of their sub-labels, so the mere fact it doesn’t say “Universal Music” doesn’t mean it’s a not a UMG-owned label. (Def Jam is a good example.)
I think if all the money was going to the musicians it wouldn’t be such a bad deal. Morris makes his money as CEO of Universal and not an artist. How many Jazz musicians in New Orleans (and other musicians around the world) that are living in poverty having to play the local bars for peanuts but some record label had made millions on their records?
If you are an artist then you know many times the record labels get the rights and not the artists.
Kind of like Garth Brooks wanting to get another royalty when I sell a used CD I don’t like anymore to someone who wants it. He got his cut the first time.
Are they willing to give me back some money when I get tired of the musicians stuff? How many people did the record companies pay back when (can’t remember their names) we found out their “hot artists” were just lip syncing someone elses music?
Microsoft sold out to get a piece of the market. Thats their business deal. But to simply accuse all customers of stealing music because they own an iPod is crass and not very intelligent. Want to see your sales go down even more? I think he just did it. Why punish the vast majority of us that are doing the right thing for the few who don’t?
He should be fired or forced to apologize publically.
Just my rightfully purchased two cents.
Well Dells,
I know who you work for.. nice attempt at trying to spin corporate greed into something rational or altruistic. But, I think now most are aware of crap when they read, see or hear it.
The business/mental model of music companies since the creation of the cd hasnt changed in 20+ years.. they feel that since you bought their cd, you should only be able to play it on their given format, CD. and only CD.
what happens if you dont like the whole cd? maybe you only like a few songs from the cd?
why should I have to buy the whole cd if I only want a few things? i dont buy stuff I dont want or need, why should i be subjected to the same in music?
the fact is Big Music companies dont want to change. Cant afford the switching costs to do so.
They dont want to invest in new technology because they would have to retrain their way of marketing and selling songs. this requires research and design which cuts into their bottom dollar of only finding artists, get a portion of their IP from the artists themselvs, for every song they’ve made and market that..
Remember, Music companies DON’T make music, they market and sell it.. When you use an IPOD or mp3 player your affecting their profit maximization.
So, why should i fork over hard earned cash to someone just profiting from someone elses thoughts and music?
If I hear a song I like and hum it, will that be DRM violation as well? or play it on a piano?
oh, and for the folks who believe that all music profits go back to the music companies, google how many musicians leave their companies to go someplace else because of corporate greed.
and finally, a few years ago, music companies were price fixing music titles to big companies to force them to sell their stuff at a premium. NYC AG got involved and they lost but theyve been keeping it discreet. So, wheres the honor in music companies now?