Universal Music boss: Sky music service won’t smash Apple

Since Sky and Universal tied up to announce the launch of a DRM-free music download service, we’ve been looking forward to a good punch-up between the music vendors, but now Universal’s chief exec says that simply won’t happen.

Explaining the company’s position in the complex download market, Lucian Grainge said: “I don’t have any concerns about Apple…If there was only iTunes providing digital music and they tripled my sales I’d be delighted… We would have had the same conversation when HMV started 70 years ago if there had been no other retailers selling 78s.”

The deal with Sky, according to Universal, is about offering music fans more choice in how they download music, and try to put a dent in peer-to-peer file sharing.

Speaking to the Telegraph, Grainge said: “The fact of the matter is it is illegal. Piracy is illegal. Peer to peer is [long pause] unfair.”

So Sky and Universal want to make music easier to grab, and hope users voluntarily give up swapping files thanks to their “all you can eat” subscription model. Sounds a lot like Nokia’s Comes with Music scheme, which can only be a good thing.

TBC | £TBC | Universal Music (via Distorted Loop)