Universal Music Group CEO Doug Morris’s attempt to wrest control of the digital music market from Apple has–shock!–run afoul of U.S. regulators. The Justice Department has begun investigating Universal for proposing to its three main competitors that they collaborate on “Total Music,” a service that would bake the cost of an “all-you-can-eat” music subscription into the hardware that supports it.
It’s not clear which aspect of Total Music has piqued the Justice Department’s interest, though it’s likely concerned that participating labels might collude to set wholesale music prices. And for good reason–the major labels were found guilty of wholesale CD price fixing back in 2000.
John Paczkowski has been poking fun at the tech industry and the personalities that drive it since 1997. From 1999 to 2007, he wrote the award-winning tech news Web log Good Morning Silicon Valley for the San Jose Mercury News, Silicon Valley's daily newspaper. Read more »
Here is a statement of my ethics and coverage policies. It is more than most of you want to know, but, in the age of suspicion of the media, I am laying it all out.
While the technology behind the Telephone is new, the design is reassuringly old-fashioned, reminiscent of a phrenologist’s horn or ear-candle in form. We found the experience far more comfortable than the one we had with the Telegraph.
12:58 AM: Breakfast: Two schools of fish from Tokyo Bay. Calories: 782,000. How I was feeling when I ate this: confused, irradiated, hating my size. 11:37 AM: Exercise: “Taxi Stomp” (alternating legs, for 30 blocks). Calories burned: 148,900,183.
1983. The Beatles announce their first tour in thirteen years, but likewise announce that Michael Jackson will be going on tour with them as a one gigantic mega-concert event.
Universal Music Group CEO Doug Morris’s attempt to wrest control of the digital music market from Apple has–shock!–run afoul of U.S. regulators. The Justice Department has begun investigating Universal for proposing to its three main competitors that they collaborate on “Total Music,” a service that would bake the cost of an “all-you-can-eat” music subscription into the hardware that supports it.
