Universal executives who were given information on the pact told the Times the company expects to take in more than $1 for every sale of the Zune device, according to the Times. A 30GB edition of Zune is set to hit U.S. retailers on Nov. 14 and will sell for $250. In exchange for the Zune royalties, Universal—the largest music company in the world—will license its music catalog for sale via the Zune marketplace.

Universal currently offers music from such artists as U2 and Jay-Z, according to the Times.

Apple Computer, which leads the digital music player and download space in the United States with its uber-popular iPod device and iTunes Store, currently gives music labels a portion of sales of their content that is sold via iTunes, but it doesn’t give such firms any percentage of sales from its iPod devices, the Times reports. The Microsoft deal with Universal could force Apple to start delivering some portion of iPod sales to music firms, which have long been concerned with the fact that many users of MP3 players illegally obtain some or all of their music via ripped CDs or file-trading Web locales.