Universal Music is working on a monthly contract basis
Universal Music Group (UMG), part of the Vivendi group, has failed to reach a satisfactory settlement in contract negotiations with Apple over their iTunes music delivery system.Vivendi Chief Executive Jean-Bernard Levy said a press conference that "The split between Apple and producers is indecent". Levy went on to say that Vivendi and UMG were now in talks with rival distributors.
UMG, the world's largest music producer, is just one of several large music companies unhappy with Apples grip on digital music distribution. Levy claims that UMG see 0.70 Euros for each 0.99 Euro sale through iTunes. he wants a shake up in the whole pricing structure as well as a bigger cut of the profits.
Levy would like to see new music re-priced to cost more than older titles.
UMG and Vivendi currently run a monthly renewal contract with Apple which can be cancelled with one month's notice. Recently NBC Universal pulled it's TV programme downloads from iTunes, selling them instead to Amazon and Vivendi are now actively looking at several competing distributors to do likewise.
