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Microsoft Plans to Take Music World by Storm with Zune

With Microsoft`s personal media player, Zune, hitting the market on November 14th, the software giant plans to aggressively takeover the portable music world. Microsoft signed a special deal with Universal Music Group that will probably become a business modal for future cooperation with other music labels. Universal Music Group is one of the largest music labels in the United States, and acts as a subsidiary of the French conglomerate Vivendi. Microsoft realizes that the record companies are a force to be reckoned with, and wants the backing of the music industry.

As with Apple`s iTunes service, Microsoft will pay Universal Music Group for licensing each of the music tracks displayed on Zune`s online music service. However, Microsoft has made the agreement much more interesting for the music label. For each Zune player sold, Universal Music Group will get a certain percentage of the profit. This means that working with Microsoft will be more profitable for music labels, than working with other online music providers. Obviously, record companies would like me and you to use Zune as our player, than other modals, as Zune purchases increase their revenue as well.

The new deal represents a `win-win` scenario where both the user and the owner of the copyrighted content can benefit from. Now, that selling Zune`s is profitable for the record companies as well, the music industry will stand aside Microsoft, and promote it`s portable MP3 player ? something that has never happened before. Microsoft`s Zune will also have a unique feature that enables owners to send content from one player to another, making the Zune very community-oriented.