• by Wendy Davis , Staff Writer @wendyndavis, November 29, 2006

Universal Music Group head Doug Morris told the Reuters Media Summit this week that the company expects to see its most profitable year ever in 2007, thanks to new tracks from its most popular musicians.

"You can see there are myriad streams of income starting to come into the record companies," he said, according to the Reuters report. "We're going to make money from MySpace, we're going to make money from YouTube, we're going to make money from Zune," said the chief executive of UMG, whose client roster includes chart-toppers like Gwen Stefani, Kanye West and U2.

At the same time, Morris also told Reuters that Universal's pending lawsuits against MySpace, Bolt Media and Grouper are justified. "I don't want to be seen as the "suing chairman' or anything like that. But I am not going to allow any of the people to infringe upon the rights of these artists and songwriters," he told Reuters.

Morris has been singing this refrain for months now, but the musicians themselves have been noticeably mute. Perhaps it's just that they don't want to alienate their fans by saying they support the lawsuits. But perhaps the musicians suspect that there's a connection between Universal's rising profits and the proliferation of online music.

Just as CBS saw ratings rise after placing videos on YouTube, Universal and other music labels have to wonder whether any harm caused by the proliferation of online tracks is outweighed by the potential increase in exposure and consumer demand.