“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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I’ve just gotten XM radio in a new car. Before the XM, I used my iPod 90% of the time, now it’s maybe just 20%. I enjoy the ‘no thinking necessary’ digital variety it provides.
IMHO, I do think the subscription model is pretty darn cool.
If anyone can do it right…it will be Apple with iTunes.
I can see it under certain conditions, but personally subscription music or subscription radio is bogus. Even if I subscribe to a magazine, I see the old reviews.
Now I would like to have more of a 30 second sample from a song but apart from that iTMS is great. I would rather buy music I can own. I can use the net to find out new music.
iTMS Canada has no Jethro Tull and no Men Without Hats and no…the list goes on. Make the libraries worthwhile. Well going to download some more.
The term is “subscription.” Is this defined as MUSIC RENTAL or LEASE OF SERVICE?
Sites like eMusic have a 9.99 a month “subscription” service where I can download up to 40 tracks a month and they are mine. Forever. No music rental.
The only reason I never signed up for their subscription service is because of the music selection. They just don’t have the music I want. If iTunes did somethign like this, I would be all over that in a second!
The kids like subscription services. They are ripping off the songs. The get as many as they want for 9.99 a month.
I envision the iPod having to be plugged in once a month to update the subscription expiry date or something for this to work.
I personally wouldn’t pay to rent music. I want to own it. But hey, if others are interested, Apple shouldn’t miss out on a potential revenue stream.
You know, subscrioption would allow people to experiecne a whole lot more music – and probably buy more of the stuff they like.
I (who. ahem. can now be called middle aged) don’t find good new music. The radio stations i listened to are in a distant time in a galaxy far far away.
Maybe a subscription service would open new markets since radio can’t seem to supprt anything but the most popular stuff.
Another waste of $9.99 a month or $119.88 a year or $1198.80 a century, etc.
That’s $11988.00 a century. Damn macally keyboard.
I think it is a fantastic way to make accessible the 1 million songs on iTunes. It wont stop people buying the songs they like for 99cents but will allow them to discover a whole range of music they otherwise would not have stumbled across. There is no doubt this business model will be popular in years to come and Apple will lose critical market share if it chooses not to be involved in subscription services.
A subscriptin service (either download or stream) for iTMS makes sense. Personally, I would not use it, mostly because iTMS has only about half of the music I buy regularly.
That said, whether I like subscription or not, there is a segment of the population for which such a service is what they want. If that number is anywhere around 20% of those using music services, why lose that portion of the market. Given that iTMS has a larger selection than every other outlet, they would be the obvious choice for most consumers. Also, apparently subscription services are more lucrative to the provider than song-by-song.
From what I read above, “subscription service” means different things to different people. Obviously, there are several ways such a service could be offered. I believe that Apple, should they go in that direction, will provide a service that will be simple to use and a good value (they seemed to be the first to realize that if you provided music downloads at a good price, people would buy them).
Can you strip the DRM from songs downloaded from a subscription service the same way you can with the a la carte song downloads? That is burn the songs to an audio CD and then re-import them. If you can circumvent the DRM the same way, surely with a little effort (ie. lots of burning and re-importing) you can subscribe for one month and then own thousands of your favourite songs for ever. For $9.99 this represents excellent value for the consumer. Horrible as a workable buisness plan though
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Jump:
“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.”
Tell me how I’m supposed to create/organize my playlist with music I don’t own.. and what happens when I miss a payment..
Well.. obviously those playlists would evaporate.. The smart playlists wouldl just be.. empty..
ALso.. how do the thousands of songs I’ve ripped to the computer from actual CD’s merge with rented/subscribed songs in iTunes…
These kinds of questions hint at the popularity of owning your music…
Yea yea yea.. you’re whining that 30 seconds isn’t enough.. yada yada yada… Rob Glaser would NOT advocate using his service to ‘test the songs so you can go buy it at the record store’…
Sorry your finicky needs aren’t being met.. you are in the vast majority with this ‘i want a minute of previews for a 3 minute song so I can go to the store and buy a CD to come home rip onto my PC and sync to my iPod’
Good luck with that..
BTW.. no playlist for you, until after you buy the CD..
“subscription “services”….are really no service to the consumer… that is, if your music stops working when you quit subscribing….”
This statement, as well as most of the other posts on this topic, reflect the thinking at Apple that got them in trouble 15 years ago — If we don’t think it is a good idea, than it isn’t.
If 20-40% of the marketplace wants a subscription service, why would they give up that portion of the market to another service. In business, arrogance will hurt you badly. If the market wants something, you just have to try and meet that need better than the competition.
This assumes, of course, that the business can make money. I have no idea how the subscription model works vs. downloads in terms of how the labels get paid.
Clearly, Steve was smart to stay out of PDA’s. Even though the market wanted them, Palm and Handspring aren’t making much money.
<b>MUSIC ARTISTS AGAINST SUBscriptIONS!!</b>
There is no much needed money coming from this buisness model.
Online stealing rampant, this is just a legitimized way to steal OUR music!! Once the music is downloaded, another computer is used to record the output signal of the first with a simple cable.
Subscriptions is just a cheap way of stealing everything you want!
You like our song? Pay us a FUCKING DOLLAR YOU CHEAP BASTARDS!!
We need to eat and pay for our houses and cars too you bloody cheap fuckers!!
LOL, feel better now. 😀
NO, It’s a dumb idea and isn’t popular with me. That’s why I use iTunes so I can buy the music and play it whenever I want. I don’t want to rent my music and then have it disappear one day because of the company I rented from decides to do something else. That’s why Steve Jobs said no subscription service. I don’t think he has changed his mind either.
I think the record companies will get cold feet about subscription services after someone hacks the DRM as Landlord pointed out.
There will be a hack for windows DRM that goes out, the record companies will start to be ripped off royally, they will chill the service, and the thieves will then convert their selection from DRM free WMA to AAC and play them on their iPods.
Clearly, Steve was smart to stay out of PDA’s. Even though the market wanted them, Palm and Handspring aren’t making much money.
—
Bit of a Timeline blip there.. Those guys were former Apple employees who left Apple when… wait for it.. Steve wasn’t even with the company..
And you’re right.. PalmPilot functions aren’t that interesting.. because they’re software duplicable with Cell Phones… And we’re seeing that happen..
So.. you want Apple to make a Phone? Well, of course not.. the market is saturated.. as such the margins aren’t fat enough to warrant another entrant into the market.. especially not a computer company..
For what it’s worth, mid to long term data can be stored on the iPod.. that is,.. data that’s not needed to be changed on a per-hour basis.. only day-by-day basis
Thanks for coming..
Hang All Music Thieves Now!!
LOL, feel better now. 😀
By all means, please do tell us how you really feel…
Well, it’s not so far-fetched that at least the Mac and the iPod might support subscription music services in the near future. Whether iTunes will be involved I have no idea.
AudioFeast.com support is coming to the Mac in 2005, according to the most recent issue of MacAddict. They offer two subscription products – one of radio shows of various types, and another of music channels.
—
Johnathan
http://www.clickauction.net/jgblog/
Hang all music thieves now said:
“Once the music is downloaded, another computer is used to record the output signal of the first with a simple cable.”
Who needs another computer and a cable? Can you say Audio Hijack?
“Enterprising” you men and women will be Audio Hijacking hundreds of thousands of subscription tunes, and then dump the subscription.
How is Apple or any other music service going to stop this?
Subscription iTunes would confuse a lot of users, new users included. I would rather see iTunes for more wireless devices. Anything that can display HTML should have its version of iTunes. The challenge would be to make everything work perfectly with iSync too so the reality would be that the best new PDAs, mobile phones and game consoles do. Imagine iTunes on GBA DS for example, or the next iPod.
Steve is into simple. 99� a song.
Just like In-N-Out Burger, with no chicken nuggets or fajita’s, they have killer hamburgers, and no other b.s. trend item of the week.
Jupiter Research has been saying subscriptions will rule in the future for at least the last 12 months. So this is just JR reiterating with new survey data what they’ve been predicting but hasn’t actually seen happen in a big way yet.
And where’s Janus, MS’ subscription on a MP3 player DRM software? It still hasn’t arrived. Given the current problems getting “Plays For Sure” purchased songs on a WMA player to actually play, this subscription stuff will just make it more complicated. Let’s see if MS can figure out how to explain subscription as being “easy-to-use”.
99 cents and it works. iPod-iTunes-iTMS. That’s for sure.
chili_filter
Steve is into simple. 99� a song.
Just like In-N-Out Burger, with no chicken nuggets or fajita’s, they have killer hamburgers, and no other b.s. trend item of the week.
That’s a great analogy if you live in California, parts of Arizona, Nevada and I think New Mexico. Everyone else wonders what you are talking about. For the rest of you poor souls, In-N-Out Burger makes some of the best fast food burgers out there, and most of them are in California. Everything fresh to order, nothing out of a freezer, fries cut to order from a potato and cooked right away, etc. Yum.
Try one if you visit CA.
At first I thought subscriptions were a ‘dumb’ idea. But that was when I thought of each music model as ‘all or nothing’ i.e. EITHER subscription or download.
BUT…once I thought about COMBINING them, it made a ton of sense.
For, say US$9.99 I get to listen to the entire song of all of them available, and then I can still buy them once I am sure I like them having played them to my hearts content for 1 month.
SO…I see it as paying $9.99 month to ‘test drive’ whole libraries of music so I can then decide what I want to buy.
I agree, it sucks as a music service, paying over and over, but it excells at a music ‘testing’ service.
I think this just might happen. It’s all about timing. The iPod hit at just the right time; subscriptions may just now be right. Maybe set up a deal where any music that you stream, you can later purchase at a discount, say 69� per song.
So long Real, we won’t miss ya.
I think it is a fantastic way to make accessible the 1 million songs on iTunes. It wont stop people buying the songs they like for 99cents but will allow them to discover a whole range of music they otherwise would not have stumbled across.
That pretty much summarizes the main reason I’d be interested in a subscription-style iTMS service.
Hell, the possibility of being able to create playlists from anything on iTMS for a reasonable monthly fee seems pretty damn cool to me. Paying to choose from any[i/] of a million songs (hypothetically), many that I’d never listen to more than once, is more enticing to me than spending the same amount for much less music that I won’t be listening to every day of that month.
And I have no doubt that being able to affordably (and legally) sample from a larger diversity of material positively influences my eventual purchases. The try-before-buy element of an iTMS subscription service seems worthwhile in comparison with taking too many gambles that inevitably cost more and satisfy less.
I definitely see value in this for anyone with a limited budget who’d enjoy a broader selection of music than they can purchase, while benefiting purchases they’ll still make. Whether or not it makes “business sense” is another matter. And the technical logistics. Etc.
I agree, it sucks as a music service, paying over and over, but it excells at a music ‘testing’ service.
Yeah, it seems sort of like that.
Still, it’s not like you’d pay to listen to only the same tracks, which is essentially what happens once you’ve made a purchase.
I think integrating some kind of subscription service (nebulously defined in this discussion so far) with the current one-time-pay service would ultimately make Apple/iTMS appear less arrogant and greedy than if it stubbornly sticks with only the current model. Let’s see a more open invitation than the limited 30-second teasers, even if we have to pay for it.
I don’t want to own all music I listen to and I don’t mind purchasing some music I listen to. Seems pretty typical, but iTMS currently insists I own all of it. iTMS or not, most of my music still comes from other sources anyway.
From: twilightmoon
In-N-Out Burger
Try one if you visit CA.
Or Las Vegas (i.e. Nevada, Arizona, and Maybe New Mexico.)
But besides Apple, and In-N-Out Burger, and maybe some other place I don’t go to frequently enough to remember, no one else seems to understand the right balance between choices and minimalism.