ots of insight in this article at Billboard.biz that recounts a speech made by Universal Music Group president/COO Zach Horovitz at the Grammy Foundation's Entertainment Law Initiative luncheon. UMG's theme for the future: Lawsuits against social networking sites and deals similar to that with Microsoft.

Horovitz laid out five steps UMG is taking to compete with sources of free music.

• Empowering legitimate services to compete with illegal ones;
• Helping artists leverage their brands and share in new revenue streams;
• Adding value to consumers through new products and formats;
• Requiring compensation from businesses (i.e. Bolt.com, YouTube) that build a business in party by using UMG's content; and
• Finding opportunities on the Internet, in wireless networks, "and whatever new technological innovations are brought to UMG -- to get more music to more consumers, where they want it, how they want it, when they want it -- and to be paid to do so." (The quote is from the article and not a direct quote from Horowitz.)

I'd love to find out how the money from lawsuits and Zune taxes will be doled out to UMG artists. From what I can tell, lump sums from the Grokster settlement have been going straight to label's revenue accounts ($13 million for WMG in the fourth quarter) and no mention of payments have been made.