“We rent homes. We rent cars. We rent movies. Why not rent music? It might be a very good deal. We now have more options than ever for buying music – we can purchase CDs from Web sites and stores and download music from online services,” Maureen Ryan reports for The Chicago Tribune.
Ryan reports, “All that is now fairly routine for many entertainment consumers: You go to a site such as Apple’s iTunes store or the new Napster and pay around 99 cents for an individual song, which you can store and play on your computer, or burn to a CD and transfer to a portable music device a certain number of times.”
“Some legal download services such as Rhapsody or Napster let you buy a subscription for about $10-$15 a month so you can download and listen to thousands of songs on your computer. The catch is, you generally can’t transfer those songs to a music player or put them on a CD unless you pay an additional $1 per track,” Ryan reports. “So, what if you could pay a flat monthly fee to download as many songs as you want and transfer them to your music player – but they’d only be playable for a certain length of time?”
Ryan reports, “Before you dismiss the concept out of hand, consider this: Microsoft is exploring it.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: “Consider this, Microsoft is exploring it.” Big flippin’ deal, Maureen. Unlike the Joe and Jane Six Packs of the world we don’t believe Microsoft can do no wrong. In fact, about all it seems to be able to do without help is wrong. The last thing Microsoft dreamt up on their own? Microsoft Bob
Before you consider the concept at all, consider this: Microsoft will own it.
No first-posters on this thread. Tough sh’t.
for more on msbob checkout
http://toastytech.com/guis/bob2.html
Congrats to Less is More for saving us all some misery at the hands of some jackass with nothing to say other than those cursed two words.
She stupid, and $soft is too.Hey let’s go rent some music Ha Ha HA. Let me go now and play wih my pet rock
1) We rent homes because they cost a lot more than a buck
2) We rent cars usually at locations that are too far to take the car we OWN
3) We rent movies because we usually only want to see them once. If we like them enough to watch over and over again we usually buy them.
Music is something you want to own and be able to keep. I like listening to songs I liked in high school just as much now as I did then and I don’t mind listening to a song I like once a month or even once a week. Over and over again. I don’t want to pay over and over again to listen to it and if you do Maureen, you really are one of those who deserve to be on windows.
Microsoft is so slimy in its business practices and has used these slimy practices to gain such dominance that I am automatically suspect of anything they come out with because it can almost be guaranteed to be a second rate experience that I will have to pay too much for somehow. Leave it to M$ slimy business practices to figure out how.
Right now I know one way that M$ is taking money out of my pocket is by overcharging for an inferior product ridden with security holes that unfair slimy business practices have resulted in being on a majority of Business computers. These security holes result in expanded business costs that are passed on to us the consumers. We just are not paying the money directly to M$ so we don’t notice.
nice breakdown Jack A…
of course.. maureen couldn’t be bothered to even think of why rental works for some things and not for others…
renting music is silly..when.. we… already.. have.. radio..
i know i know..
i’ve asked friends who have all said.. what’s the point? I have free local radio station that plays all the rock i like… if i’m gonna pay for something, i wanna own it…
last post
In the Europe people buys music to their Nokia mobile telephones worth of over 1.1 billion �uros. They do not rent it they buy it in AAC format.
Nobody want�s to rent music especially when they know that it disapears if you miss one months payment.
I have a question: Is there any place in the ‘real world’ (like Tower Records, etc) that you can actually RENT music?? I know you can borrow CD’s at some libraries, but I’m not counting that. If this model doesn’t work in the physical world, why does Microsoft think (I know, it’s an oxymoron) it will work in the virtual world.
The writer also said: “We’re already trained to rent movies, and in the long run, video could present an even better use for Janus, which may be Microsoft’s real goal”
Video rentals through broadband connections?
They have stores where you can rent CDs in Japan. I have never used it myself but from what I understand the CDs are rented and then the music is copied to either a cassette or computer usually. So you do end up owning it in the end.
I’m not so sure why people are immediately clamoring to call this all bogus. If Apple were doing it, I’m sure people would jump on the idea of it being “innovative” considering the fact that nobody else has done it and that it doesn’t exist in the real world in America at least (as others have pointed out above).
Personally, I think the idea does have some merit. Ask yourself how much money you spent each month on CD’s. Let’s say you buy three CD’s off iTunes each month for a little under $30. So in other words, you basically spend $30 a month for three albums.
What if instead you paid a one time fee of $25, had unlimited downloading, and could do anything with the music that you wished to (burn to CD, put on portable music player, etc.), etc.?
In this case, it’s actually cheaper to use the subscription based rental service. On technicality, you wouldn’t “own” your music, but it would function exactly the same as the owned iTMS music, and yet you could DOWNLOAD MORE WITHOUT PAYING MORE!
Personally, if I could download 8 CD’s for the price of 3 each month and do the same thing I do with it as I do now (listen on my computer, put on my iPod, and burn to CD), I don’t care whether I “own” or “rent” it. How would I know the difference?
Russell you are right if you COULD “do the same thing I do with it as I do now” it would be great. But you will not be able to. And you can mark my words on that.
Hi, I’m Clippy, your new Windows personal assistant!
Microsoft Bob has been discontinued, nobody liked him.
By the way it’s seems you are a bit constipated, would you like me to perform a enema?
I think we are going to be enjoying each other for quite some time.
Ain’t Microsoft life grand?
Russell:
Firstly, I may be wrong, but I do not think that you can burn rented music. Once you burn it it’s yours till you die and is no longer “rented”.
Secondly, and if the first point is true, access to tunes will be solely determined by MS. You may find that the convenience of access to tunes stored on your own hard drive, CD, or DVD is worth the price of purchase.
Thirdly, it has been reported that Apple makes 1 to 2 cents off each 99-cent song. How is it possible that MS could make any profit by renting music at less than 99 cents per tune unless MS were to restrict the number of tunes per month? I do not know if the economics of renting music is feasible unless the ultimate intention is to (i) eliminate all other competitors or (ii) restrict consumer access.
Fourthly, be prepared for varying subscription costs. The basic fee of $25 may only apply to some music and/or to some limited number of tunes. If you want more tunes or more variety you may have to pay more to get them. If the cost of access increases beyond your comfort level you may forfeit all your rented tunes. However, if point one is not true, you can quit the serviced and keep whatever tunes you have. This would place the burden on MS to keep subscription rate low and would be a good thing for consumers. Question is, what has MS done in the past that has convinced you that consumer interest, veracity, and reliability are major focuses of their business philosophy?
Just go to AllofMP3.com it’s a Russian site that accepts PayPal.
Download all you want, in any format you want, any bit rate you want, ACC, Org, etc. even pure CD lossless. No copy protection.
For a mere 4.6� a MB or about 20� a song.
Or wait a while, when the new double density DVD’s burners come out and doublesided double density DVD-R’s one can get a entire genre of music on less than 10 DD/DS DVD-R’s. Your local hood will be selling them for $100.
The low end is already covered, that’s why M$ and Crapster is going to fail in the long run. Once you start thinking cheap you start to lose.
Just look at Windows.
Cheapo’s:
Thanks for reminding us that pure Libertarian business economics exists in Russia. How can anyone, including iTunes, compete with our Slavic bothers? What can RIAA do about this Russian thing? Is it illegal for US citizen to buy music from Russia?
Rental models won’t work because once the site you choose to rent your music goes belly up, you have lost all the music you invested a sizable amount of money in. Whereas if iTMS goes belly up tomorrow, I will forever retain all the music I purchased from it.
We rent homes. We rent cars. We rent movies. Why not rent music? Why not rent an OS? Why not rent the apps to run on that OS? Why not…
Typical Microsoft thought processes. And by the way no straight thinking individual would rent their primary automobile. It would be immensely expensive as opposed to leasing or purchasing. And no, leasing is not renting.
People like Russel are the reason why the service may not be stillborn. They just don’t realize that while they can download unlimited number of songs, none of them can be legally burned on CDs. Furthermore, they don’t realize they may end up with thousands of worthless files when they stop the subscription payment. All the effort to find and download the songs is wasted, not to mention a waste of bandwidth.
“Is it illegal for US citizen to buy music from Russia?”
Most definitely. If you believe that artisits should get paid for the music you enjoy, then you should most definitely not be using allofmp3.
Russia is not YET part of the WTO, which is the only reason why this exists. It is trying very hard to, but WHEN it does eventually join the WTO, it will be legally required to stop (what will be) illegal distribution of intelectual property.
Do you honestly think that something Microsoft software engineers design will not be broken? You will be able to get a 1 month free trial, download the full library of songs, download the pirate software that breaks the DRM, burn CD’s of everything and cancel the subscription. This is going to be very big. It will kill all the MP3, P2P sites. Everyone will use it for 1 month. Even Mac users will buy a copy of Virtual PC just to get a massive, free CD library. The only limit is the size of your hard drive. Go Microsoft!
“How can anyone, including iTunes, compete with our Slavic bothers? What can RIAA do about this Russian thing? Is it illegal for US citizen to buy music from Russia?” – meat of moose
According to the info I gleaned from websites, AllofMP3.com can operate simply because of holes in the Russian copyright system. They can do it cheaply and keep much of the profit. Since it operates in Russia, RIAA can’t do a damn thing since it’s legal in Russia. However, whether you should buy or not depend on yourself. Most argue that copyright violation starves artists or that RIAA is evil since artists don’t get compensation for their work. Basically, buying from AllofMP3.com is not different, i.e. artists don’t get compensation. However, it may make you feel better since you pay for something. Copyright issues are complex and there is no good analogy for it, but just because you are paying for something, it doesn’t make it right (which in itself is debatable).
IANAL, so I won’t comment much on the legality of non-Russian buying from AllofMP3.com. But, considering that RIAA is pretty agressive in prosecution, would you take the chance of getting sued? Until all issues are clearly settled, I’d avoid AllofMp3.com if I were you.
i hope al is right. once janus arrives i will have every song in existence. but first i need to buy some extra hard drives
Concerning comments from Russell: ” If Apple were doing it, I’m sure people would jump on the idea of it being “innovative”…”. I don’t know about you, but I call a spade, a spade. If Apple were to decide to jump into it, I would call it a bad idea.
Your thoughts on music rental are conjecture. You are assuming a great deal based upon your own fantasies and NOT upon the already proven track record of Microsoft.
Consider this: One of the aspects which made digital photography take off was recording your images on compact flash, memory sticks, SDD, etc. The images saved in these devices are easily transferred to your computer for your viewing pleasure. If one stops right here, everything sounds fine. Now enters the villain. All these different compact flash media use FAT-32 file system, distributed by (you guessed it) Microsoft. Upon initial distribution, no mention was ever made about fees or royalties – until recently. Now that everyone in digital photography is using cards formatted in this system, Microsoft has decided to charge for its use (surprise!!!).
Microsoft will own all the music you rent NOT YOU! When they decide to raise the rental bill (and you can be assured that they will), you will be stuck with a choice. Either cough up the extra money, or lose EVERYTHING in your rented music library. All the money you think you’ve saved will be lost, and WHAT will you have to show for it? What if Microsoft decides it doesn’t want to continue in this venture, what then will happen to your precious music library. Do you honestly believe that Microsoft will have YOUR best interests at heart? The only thing you are to Microsoft is a cash infusion – NOTHING MORE!!!
I suppose for ultimate convenience, you could just simply allow Microsoft to siphon the montly rental. That way you don’t even have to think about your payments. Perhaps that would make you happy Russell. I’m sure that would make Microsoft happy.
mac daddy thanks for the info about the digicam memorycards/microsoft. i can’t believe that crap!! please give me a link if possible