This is as good a reason as any not to buy a Zune. It rewards the music companies for their racketeering and extends the life of the discredited concept of DRM. Pity, as the Zune could have been the stick with which to beat Apple for it's proprietory nonsense.
In a rare move, Microsoft said yesterday that it had agreed to pay a percentage of the sales of its new portable media player to the Universal Music Group.
Universal Music, a unit of Vivendi, will receive a royalty on the Zune player in exchange for licensing its recordings for Microsoft’s new digital music service, the companies said.
Source: New York Times