“Going against conventional wisdom, I think Apple will soon introduce a subscription-based music and video service. Although music-subscription services have been in the digital music rotation for years now–and with relatively low success–Apple has repeatedly shunned this still intriguing distribution model for its iTunes Music Store. But the digital music space is still young, and as competition from the likes of WMP 11 and Urge heats–or, rather, warms–up, I believe Apple may shock us with its own bulletproof version of an all-you-can eat iTunes club. And consumers will lick it up,” James Kim, Senior editor, CNET Reviews writes. “While subscription services have struggled to capture the hearts and wallets of the masses, the infrastructure and the standards for operating a service are ready to go. While not everybody will warm to the idea of renting songs, the time is now for users to accept the subscription model as one of the many options for consuming music.”
“Imagine a subscription-enabled iTunes 7 with all-you-can-stream access to more than 3 million tracks for $10 month. You’d also be able to compile playlists manually or automatically using a mix of your own songs and the entire iTunes catalog. You could actually fill up a 60GB iPod with the click of a button. You’d still have the option to buy tracks, perhaps for less than 99 cents. As a subscriber, you’d get access to videos and maybe even movies for a few bucks more. Of course, you’d have to get the newest iPod, equipped with an internal subscription clock,” Kim writes. “I can’t believe that in five years, Apple won’t have a subscription service. The company has taken note of the problems on the WMA side, plus it has the advantage of controlling both the hardware and software sides of the subscription equation. The time is now for an easy-to-use, utterly convenient, and cheap subscription service from Apple.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: A subscription service option for iTunes that works for both Mac and Windows PC users plus also works with iPods? Now that sounds like a winner to us. Not for everyone, of course, but it would be a nice option to have. What do you think?
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Related articles:
Apple iTunes music and video store takes first step toward subscription model – March 08, 2006
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EMI Music Chairman: Music subscription services like Napster and Rhapsody haven’t beeen huge – January 23, 2006
BusinessWeek: Apple unlikely to launch music subscription service – August 15, 2005
Merrill Lynch analyst: Apple could ‘flick the switch on a music subscription model’ – May 13, 2005
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I’d pay to listen to unlimited music and buy what I like.
I couldn’t care less about the subscription for music, but a subscription for video will eventually replace my satellite tv. I hope.
Best idea would be a subscription where you could try as many as say 2000 songs per month (how many new songs you going to listen to anyway). By the end of each month you could designate say 10 songs from your subscription you could then own. That way you get the best of both worlds.
I wouldn’t mind a reasonably priced subscription service – there is a lot of music I would like to try but don’t want to commit to buying outright without having had a real chance to listen to it, plus there is a lot of music I like for a time then get bored of so wouldn’t mind not actually owning. What would be great is a low price with possible some sort of reduction if you want to buy it fully, I’m not talking massive amounts but even a few cents per song might (depending on how much music you buy) make the subscription itself more worthwhile.
Having both options would be great, after all if you don’t want to subscribe you don’t have to.
Andy,
“music renting is bad, the average person doesnt even buy that much music, so it would be cheaper for them to just by the 1-5 albums they get a year.”
– You’re partially correct. Most people do not want to spend a lot of money on music, especially since music tastes change and they may not want to be stuck with albums that they may not particularly care for a year or two later.
Now, if a person only buys 5 albums a year, that’s not that many songs to listen to on your iPod, unless you’ve already bought or stolen thousands of dollars of music. But for the same amount each year, you can select from millions of songs that accommodate a wide variety of changing music tastes, and still have money to spare on the few albums that you really want to keep forever.
An advantage that Apple has is that they would not be dependent on the subscription service for profits. In other words, they can price their subscription service much lower than the competition. This would be a great way to give consumers even more choice.
CNET has wrong forecast. Apple will be stick with old policy at least for music, music videos, TV shows. but if Apple will release new movie download service with new ipod video which will come Thanksgiving, Apple will put this service becasue the length of movie download is too much longer so streaming is better like ABC full feature streaming TV shows recently.
Hmmmm. If you want my 2 cents, here goes. If not just leave it at the local 7-11.
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I would never rent long term. Period.
BUT—– from time to time, I might get a months rent just to listen to songs that I think I might want to buy.
You know, Hmmmm, I am bored, wanting new songs but not sure where to spend my money. One months renting and check out 30-50 songs. Make my selection and then buy them direct or online if only a song or two.
But then, thats just me.
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N.
“I wanna own my music, so if i lose a job, i can listen to depressing sad songs, not silence because i cant keep up payments.”
And that’s fine.
What’s fun with subscription services is, like a radio, you can hear lots of music and decide what you might want to buy. Combine this with iMixes and you may have a batch of home-grown DJs programming music for the masses. Heck, commercial stations might get into the mix and publish their playlists for promotional purposes: “Here’s what we’re playing this week on KBIG!”
As I’ve said, I’m not convinced that the subscription model will beat out the purchase model. Where I think the subscription model works is competing against subscription radio services, like XM and Sirius. I’d pay $10/month to load up my iPod with Celebrity Playlists from Liv Tyler and Al Franken, The Basics of ’80s Hardcore Punk, and some good iMixes. Heck, mix in some podcasts and I’ve got my own personal radio station that I can use on my iPod in the car, at home, on my computer, etc. etc.
Doesn’t sound too shabby.
a subscription service is foolish. It is too easy to capture that music with something like audio hijack, as is happening on college campuses that have embraced to subscription model. Why a label or artist would sign on to subscription is beyond me.
This would totally screw up the relative openess of Apple’s DRM. They’d have to alter it so that you couldn’t easily burn CDs of downloade tracks and begin restricting the number of systems you could play these songs on more than they do now. Why let you play on 5 computers and give away the income form 5 possible subscriptions?
Apple could do it, but it won’t be pretty. I prefer to own my music and I want my music to play without a “subscription time” lording over it. When I hear a song I like, it rarely takes me more than a minute or so to know it, and I buy it. Simple.
3rdKidney,
“This would totally screw up the relative openess of Apple’s DRM. They’d have to alter it so that you couldn’t easily burn CDs of downloade tracks”
– That’s really not that hard to do in a relatively simple way.
“and begin restricting the number of systems you could play these songs on more than they do now.”
– No, they wouldn’t have to do that.
“Why let you play on 5 computers and give away the income form 5 possible subscriptions?”
– Because the primary source of their income is from hardware sales, not music sales. If it gives people a reason to buy more iPods, then it is a success.
“Apple could do it, but it won’t be pretty.”
– Actually, I’m quite sure that Apple could make it pretty, as is the case with most everything they decide to do.
Finally, a safe way to steal music on the Mac. Windows users have had this feature for years. No more worries about illegally downloading music on the net, just steal it from your own computer and leave no record with your IP.
Apparently you have to subscribe for at least 2 months to fill a 60 GB iPod with stolen subscription tunes.
$20 to $30 for 60 GB of music that I own with no record of stealing it.
Sign me up!
maybe apple will have subscription-based music with XM and Sirrus. the serivce coming from iTunes but is billed by XM and Sirrus. they already offer the service themselves.
Won’t go over at all
Apple’s hardware products cater to artists; music, graphic and film production.
The reason iTunes is so popular with artists wishing to place their material on the iTunes Music Store is because <b>they don’t do subscriptions</b>.
Apple tries to help artists sell music which in turn attracts the largest online music collection.
Subscriptions cater to thieves and cheap bastards that can’t or won’t give artist a frigging buck for a song.
Apple isn’t about appearing cheap and won’t go in that direction. They rather lose market share first than cater to the “low margin” crowd.
I’m all for options, but personally, I have enough monthly bills.
As long as it is only an option and not forced upon people that would be fine. But I personally would rather buy my music and not have to pay for it every month. So hopefully they’ll have both options available for those who would like to subcribe and those who would rather buy like me.
About the video
Video costs a heck of a lot more to produce than music.
Hollywood has to charge a higher premuim for movies in order to make a profit.
Expensive iPods work because of iTMS and cheap content.
Since EFI computers with HDCP content protection are not the majority yet (Intel Mac’s are) and there is no DRMed monitor yet, forget seeing any sort of online video service.
Plus internet service providers are already complaining and wanting to charge online services for taking up too much bandwidth.
It’s mostly coming from cable companies who see video online services cutting into their cable box extortion racket.
Now there is this ultra compression alogrithm and new TCP protocol that combined can get about 5000x the bandwidth using the present structure in place.
Of course the snoops don’t like it. But it would work very well if implemented.
James Kim is a hack.
I think that subscription models are going to become more popular in the future. The reason they have not caught on is because everyone is on iTunes and has no idea what they are.
Apple isn’t going to do it yet but I would bet that as Movies are phased in and TV content grows we will see a tiered subscription for music +/- TV +/- movies for varying amounts of money.
This may be controversial but I would go so far as to say that subscription will be the only way for movies and realistically for TV shows too. The reason for this is that the video quality is basically shite and is going to say that way for some time. It just in not good enough to watch on a big flat screen. This is especially important for movies. We are not going to see actual HD content for at least couple of years, when the infrastructure can hold it, and until we do the mass market isn’t going to pay for outright purchases when they can get DVDs for the same money. However, a widescreen iPod and a subscription could be tempting.
This is not going to happen. As Steve Jobs said, people want to own their music – not rent it.
Crap!
won’t happen. As Nick said, his Steveness has said that people want to own their own music.
Steve Jobs also once said that x86 sucked. So much for that.
Point of info for all the C/Net Haters out there: They were the site that broke the story of Apple dropping PPC chips, BEFORE Jobs announced it offically. As I remember, almost everyone posting on MDN back then said stuff along the lines of “never gonna happen”, and “C/Net is always wrong” too.
Subcription for Music would stink, but……for VIDEO? HELL YES!!!! Think about it, a video subscription service would be a near perfect replacement for my stupid, expensive, nothing ever on Cable TV Subscription. The problem with iTMS now is that I got all these dumb shows that I’ve purchased over time just gathering space on my hardrive. How many times am I gonna watch a particular episode of Top Chef? Twice maybe? The point is that I don’t really want to keep these television shows forever, I just want to watch them, and move on to something else. However, I can’t bring myself to delete any of them because I paid $2 for them! But a video subscription service would allow me to pay $20, keep only lets say 10 shows at a time, and effortlessly replace the Cable TV!
Music subscription…..stupid, we listen to some of our songs possibly hundeds of times over our lifetimes. Video, specifically movies and more so TV Shows, a handful only.
Another monthy bill F__K THEM!