“Subscription-based music services are becoming popular among young adults and will eventually outgrow a la carte song downloads, a new study predicts. While 16 percent of online adults currently enjoy downloading 99-cent singles, 17 percent have been wooed by subscription services such as Napster and RealNetworks’ Rhapsody–and that number is expected to grow, according to a survey released Wednesday by JupiterResearch,” Dinesh C. Sharma reports for CNET News.
“The survey showed that the number of people interested in subscription services increased with age–19 percent of 13- to 17 year olds used the services, compared with 31 percent of 18- to 24 year olds. That number reached 37 percent for ‘music addicts,’ defined by Jupiter as those who have spent more than $45 on music in the past three months,” Sharma reports.
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Certainly, one would hope, that market-dominating Apple has their collective eye on this and other research. If the subscription model becomes interesting enough to Apple, one would suspect that they’d add the option to their iTunes Music Store (iTMS) and the FairPlay Digital Rights Management technology used to protect iTMS-purchased files. There is nothing that we know of that would prevent Apple from doing so technically. The agreements with the labels would be another consideration, that may or may not already be spelled out in existing agreements, before a subscription feature would debut. Would a subscription option, say US$9.99 per month for unlimited streaming and downloading of the iTMS library to your computer and iPod, be of interest to you? Remember, if you decided to stop subscribing, your music would stop working unless you buy the tracks you want to keep for 99-cents each.
Great Idea, 1st Post!!
dont see this happening at all
subscription “services”….are really no service to the consumer… that is, if your music stops working when you quit subscribing….
Thats a dumb idea which I doubt His Steveness wouldnt even entertain…
In other news…. Heres another X-Serve cluster being built….
Not quite as large as the Big Mac at Va Tech… but its a start !!
I don’t buy this. Just because 13- to 17-year-olds like subscription-based services doesn’t mean they will when they grow up. It could simply mean it suits their needs as teenagers. But yeah, if it does really become popular, one would hope Apple gets on board.
Give people a choice. If they want to be stupid and use iTunes as a subscription service then let them.
Apple just has to be upfront about the limitations of a subscription service and hopefully smart people will go for owning rather than renting.
What happens with the music the day I forget or decide not to pay the subscription? I will not subscribe to something like that!
I already have to make too many monthly payments, music is not going to be an additional one!
I still think the subscription model is for the birds. Most consumers don’t want to rent their music. Offering it as an option if there is a market for it is fine, but I’m sure the majority of iTunes music buyers would rather own their music instead.
Er… how exactly do you ‘merge’ your current CD collection with your ‘rented music and playlists’
god what a fscking headache..
The subscribe and buy model might be interesting. You get to hear a lot of songs and keep (by paying extra) those you like.
The only problem I see with this is how could you download and play songs recieved by subscription on an ipod? Does the ipod know that you have paid your dues for that month and allow the subscribed songs to be play? If you let the subscription lapse for a month, are the songs deleted or simply locked?
The cost for Apple of running a subscription service has to be taken into account. More downloads per user will occur and will need to be supported by hardware and bandwidth increases.
Without question I’d be interested. I’ve gone back to only buying physical CD’s because of the far superior sound quality but I occassionally buy a song from iTunes to check out an artist. To have unlimited access to review an entire album (much less multiple albums) would be a great option prior to going out and purchasing the CD. At that point I could care less if I lose the rights to them later.
A key characteristic of iTMS from Day 1 has been its simplicity and consistency: “All Songs 99 cents. Period.”
They’ve been mocked when they charge 99 cents for very short or silent tracks, and criticized when they refused to sell the new Band Aid single at a higher price.
But that simplicity and consistency has helped them catch on with the consumer like no one else, and they’re not going to give it up.
it depends how well they do the subscription service.
the downfall of subscription is losing your songs if you stop paying. well, how about they have it so if you stop paying, any time in the future, you can resume paying the monthly fee, and get all your songs back? that is, the songs you downloaded are always on your computer, they just have to be unlocked by paying the monthly fee.
that way, there is less risk to the comsumer. but, perhaps the technicalities of this, along with the financial implications to apple may prohibit this.
I am always searching for new artists and new music. The ability to listen to an endless supply of music from any type of genre for a small fee, as opposed to a dollar per song, can be quite enticing. However, I think the ideal solution would be a satellite radio built into the iPod. Even though you don’t get to keep the music forever, $10 doesn’t seem like too much to pay each month. Perhaps .Mac subscribers could get it for free? And having satellite radio would eliminate the tedious process of downloading and transfering subscription songs from iTunes to the iPod.
I don’t think subscription services are a good deal but obviously some do or the current services wouldn’t exist. So, Apple has the infrastructure, knowledge, wherewithal to do it at any time. So, why not. It would kill Real and the others
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Hehe.. your playlists.. do you value them.. because they don’t mean squat with rented music lmfao…
I’m not a music afficiando, and I don’t like the idea of my music disappearing when I stop paying a monthly fee. However, if it gave me the option to have all the music I want to listen to when I want to listen to it, and then just discard it when I’m done with it, that is something I’d think about. I often find myself going through my library every few months a trashing songs I don’t care to listen to anymore. Obviously I’m not going to do that with songs I’ve purchased from iTunes, but I might welcome the option.
I’d be open to trying a subscription service because sometime. 30sec samples aren’t long enough to find out if I will really enjoy a song (but still better then the alternative of standing at a music kiosk in a B&M store).
To address managing the rented vs. owned library:
I suggest a new playlist category called Subscribed Music. The Folder could have a visial cue if your sub is paid up (e.g. Color coded or +/- or happy/sad face etc.)
If you forget to pay or temporaily are not subscribed, the songs you subscibed to remain, but, you just can’t play’em.
Once you reinitiate payment, the songs are again available.
Also regardless of subscription- Anybody think It would be nice to have sub playlists (playlists folders inside playlists folders)?
Mike, I’m not sure why you’re laughing. If you consider my original post along with what king_alvarez said (which also describes me) it makes total sense. 30 second clips are not enough to give a critical listen. If I transfer an album to my iPod from a subscription service it will only be temporary. If I like it I’ll go buy the CD. If I don’t, it won’t stay on the iPod. What do playlists have to do with it? Right now Apple is no longer getting my music dollars. This service would get me back on board with them.
i’ll go back to stealing before i use a subscription service. either i rob them or they rob me. i want to own my music, not rent it.
as some have already mentioned, are subscription song’s allowed on ipods? and what happens when you stop paying subscription? songs get locked? or songs get deleted?.
Subscription based services, are not really going to work at universities unless a version of the store is stored locally on a university server, because for a lot of universities, imagine 500 (conservative amount, at night times) people trying to stream itunes from off-campus servers at the same time, that, plus normal traffic, and i think the bandwidth will take a significant hit. Heck even now, i can’t stream listen to the 30sec preview from iTMS without requiring buffering at least 3-5 times. So basically someone moving to residence would either have to suffer, rebuffering,pay for their own cable/dsl, or cancel the subscription while they live in res (or hope the university has enough bandwidth)
Wow. Where did this “rent music” thing come from? I have no intention of renting this music. I’d be paying a monthly fee to trial listen to more music than I could ever dream of being able to afford to check out. Music that I can choose exactly what I want to try (unlike a satellite where you get what they give you). And then if I like it, I BUY THE REAL CD!!! No renting involved.
It’s not like Apple would switch to a subscription-only service. Having an option is not a bad thing, so I don’t see why many of you are so adamently opposed to the idea. How many times have you heard a song on the radio and liked it the first 10 times but soon got tired of listening to it? Or have you ever liked one song by an artist and so go out and buy the CD just to find the rest of the songs suck? Being able to sample music without a liftime commitment would help to promote new artists and indie groups also, so I don’t see how this could be a negative thing.
Apparently those of you that think anyone that is interested in the idea of subscription music is stupid, then you must be the type that only buys movies and never rents or watches cable/satellite tv.
At $9.99 wouldn’t it be smarter for these teenagers to just go and buy a Sirius or XM satelite radio. They get more selection of music, and they can use it anywhere.
I also wonder how manyof these teens who are using the subscription service are just downloading the music that they want, cracking the DRM and when they have their fill will simply drop the service.
Subscription model works when they get you to buy in for a long time. I’m sure that teens will find internet radio and streamripper software to be a more economical choice.
I say give subscriptions as an option in iTunes. FairPlay has to handle which tracks are bought and which are subscribed to; it might be a little tricky but that’s what DRM is supposed to do, after all. I would not use such a service, but as long as I can keep buying tracks for 99 cents to own forever, it’s not a big deal to me that the subscription service is there.
How about this: Rented tracks show up with their text in red. Purchased tracks remain black. That would make it really easy to see what you’re going to lose if you let your payments lapse.
P.S. To see the rented tracks in red on your iPod as well as in iTunes, you have to buy an iPod photo.
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