“Virgin Group is set to announce a partnership with Internet developer MusicNet today to build the retailer’s online music store. The Virgin site, which will launch in late summer, will try to differentiate itself from the myriad of other stores by offering a monthly subscription plan that, for less than $10, will let users listen to as many songs as they like,” Stephen Lynch reports for The New York Post. “If the subscription is canceled, those songs will no longer be accessible – although users will also have the option of buying music permanently.”
“The Virgin store will use Microsoft’s digital-music format, WMA, which is backed by online retailers such as Wal-Mart and Napster. The leading online music store, iTunes, uses a competing format from Apple,” Lynch reports. “Zack Zalon, president of Virgin Digital, said the large number of digital-music devices backing WMA will give it an advantage over iTunes, which interacts with only one player, the iPod. ‘We believe Microsoft will eventually define the standard,’ Zalon said. ‘Apple is an innovator, but, because it has a closed standard, it will fall off.'”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: You can start laughing now, if you’re not already. Subscriptions? Failed idea. WMA is not a “closed standard?” Apple will “fall off?” You mean like Napster 2.0, BuyMusic.com, etc. fell off or are currently in the process of falling off the map – pushed by iTunes, no less? Mr. Zalon overlooks the simple, usually-easy-to-comprehend fact: millions of iPods sold and millions selling right now means those millions of iPoders will not be using Virgin’s “service” if and when it ever becomes available in August. We’ll be using iTunes and Apple’s iTunes Music Store. Bigtime. So will HP iPoders. Give us a call when you’re not just peddling vapor and FUD, Mr. Zalon.
he should have dinner with scotty plum
Does anyone, I mean anyone actually look, listen, and think? It’s is so freaking clear that this sort of service just doesn’t work. No, I’m not going to pay you $120 a year for the priviledge to just listen to music, and possibly buy from you. Duh.
Is this another US site (in which case doomed to fail) or something for the UK?
Wippit may succeed in the UK. But it has no Mac client yet. You can petition them to add a mac client by mailing to enoughbillgatesalready@wippit.com
It’s currently subscription, and uses P2P. You get to burn and keep music you download (legally) and can only share with other subscribers. This is a model I prefer to iTunes. The library is much more limited, so it won’t suit everybody. It’s something I’d try and if it didn’t work for me, I’d just move one.
They use MP3. Not WMA. This is another important point too.
If iPod did WMA, it could well be bew-bye iTMS. As long as it doesn’t, people will stick with MP3/AAC.
The really scary thing here is the underlying message this sends. Virgin was already in the music biz before this online stuff started, unlike Apple and Napster (Napster was into music, just not the business). And after all this, it goes to show how they aren’t learning anything. People don’t want to rent music. That’s not the way it works. You rent a movie, becuase most of the time you only watch it once, yet you listen to a song over and over again. I really think this is starting to sound repetitive, and it only shows how the music industry as a whole is getting stupider by the day. Time for an enema, I say.
Just like mr. thurrot(note lower case), this guy thinks that negative publicity is gonna hurt Apple. This could only be the only reason he writes this…otherwise he looks like a fool because the numbers DON’T add up!!
They are looking like fools trying to affect people towards their side. I got to tip my hat to HP in not joining the crowd on the spiraling toilet bandwagon. Reality is reality and the iPod and the mini are the bomb and it will continue.
I don’t see the innovation here. Others have tried the exact same thing and failed. The general public doesn’t give a tinker’s dam about file encryption. What they want is a way to buy music online easily and cheaply, and then to be able to put it into an easy-to-use portable player just as easily. No one else offers the simplicity and quality that Apple does.
I do admire Virgin Group for racing down a known dead-end, and thinking they can blaze a new trail past the discarded wrecks that have tried before them. They have the right idea, but they are going down the wrong road.
Good luck Virgin Group! Your company will provide entertainment, but unfortunately it won’t be in music, just some fun for Apple users that like to watch a good crash and burn.
10 bucks a month for music you can’t keep? Shit, do that with movies and you’ve sold me, but music?
You can slate apple all you want for not using WMA, but Mpeg4 is better anyway, and if you buy one song from apple, it’s basically yours for life. I don’t want to have to pay a subscription to listen to music that I payed for (on top of the subscription).
My biggest gripe about subscription/streaming services is this: what do I do when I’m not in front my computer?
Say I subscribe in January. I listen to all the hottest new tunes. Six months (and $60 later), I decide to skip off to the beach for the weekend. I’d love to bring my music collection with me on my Napster/Samsung player so I can get down in the sand. But wait…
Any of those hot new tunes I deem worthy for a festive beach mix are not mine to burn and/or download to my portable music player. To do that, I’ve got to offer up an additional buck for every song I couldn’t live without for the few days.
Ouch.
I’ve already got a free streaming service. It’s called the radio…and I don’t listen to that either.
Down with subscriptions. Good luck, Mr. Zalon. You will soooooooo need it.
The Virgin site, which will launch in late summer, will try to differentiate itself from the myriad of other stores by offering a monthly subscription plan that, for less than $10, will let users listen to as many songs as they like,” Stephen Lynch reports for The New York Post. “If the subscription is canceled, those songs will no longer be accessible – although users will also have the option of buying music permanently.”
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Yeah, that’s going to differentiate you from Napster. ‘Cause that’s way different from what they offer.
“Zack Zalon, president of Virgin Digital, said the large number of digital-music devices backing WMA will give it an advantage over iTunes.”
Well, we can’t argue with failure, can we. Get a Clue�, Zach.
Steve Jobs, in the Marketplace, with the iPod/iTMS combo.
all run the end is near, doom, gloom, apple is dead, itunes is dead, ipod is dead…. IF so why can’t I find a dang ipod. No trouble finding any of the others… Same nonsense.
Oh my oh my. How many ‘rent my music for big bucks’ business models have to fail before idiots realize it does NOT WORK!
LOL, are they delusional or what? And all the iPods owner who buy over a million tunes a month (or is that a week) what are supposed to do? Put the iPod in a drawer, buy a crappy player and buy WMA music?
HAHAHAHHHAHAHAHAHAHAH
what a dummy dummy stupid-head
Ummm, I am a avid Mac user, but if you think Richard Branson has no pull in the music industry, you might want to think again, wma will fail, but Mr. Branson will go with AAC if it does, this gentleman is no joke.
The larger number of players support WMA and constitutes the smaller part of the bought music online. Is that too difficult to understand that even owners of those players have ditched them for an iPod.
Virgin only hope to make a dent is to support AAC – ie open standard mp4 – and an iPod supporting store. He might have a pull in the music industry but whoever calls AAC a closed standard is an idiot who has no idea of what he is talking about.
Hmmm, I wonder if Virgin is part of the holdup with iTMS in Europe. Jobs wants everything to be the same. If Virgin is not licencing to Apple at the same rates as in the US, that is ONE explanation of the holdup.
If Virgin was smart they would simply license Fairplay from Apple and support AAC/Fairplay with their own version. Virgin could also make an HP like deal and sell Virgin branded iPods.
Apple has always stated that they don’t make money on the music, just the iPods.
Apple should license our Fairplay ONLY to other music download companies. This way they can sell more iPods.
i think virgin are right – Apple needs to support all the players out there if it is not eventaully to be a niche.
John,
I look at it the other way. Other music download sites should support other formats that WMA. They should give you an option of what format you can dl your music.
I don’t like the fact that HD-DVD will be in M$ proprietary format and M$ will get $$$$ for each HD-DVD sold. Why was Mpeg-4 created???
>> the large number of digital-music devices backing WMA will give it an advantage over iTunes, which interacts with only one player, the iPod.
I actually agree with this, so john-the-previous-poster and I are on the same page. Fairplay-enabled AAC needs to work on as many portable players as possible (more thna just the iPod), and I’d even like to see Musicmatch, Real, and (gasp !) Windows Media player support these files too.
Apple has demonstrated that it can win on product. I’d hate for the company to struggle with file incompatabilities.
It’s all about real life stories, and I happen to have one.
I have a buddy (PC user) and he sent me an IM about getting frustrated fumbling about one night with MusicMatch and other Jukeboxes. I messaged him back, and said “go get iTunes”, and he said “what’s that?”. I sent him a link and he downloaded and installed it. A few hours later, he would not shut up about it: “this is the $hit, man this iTunes rox”, etc etc. He spent $40 in iTMS the next night. He asked me if his girlfriend’s RIO (or whatever it is) would work with iTunes, and I said “go buy an iPod”. Even though they only had their RIO for about 3 weeks, the next day they went to CompUSA and bought a 40GB iPod, and he raves about the whole thing. One thing worth noting, is that he was trying to rip CD’s that night with MusicMatch and one CD would take 40 minutes+, he was astounded when iTunes ripped his CD’s in mere minutes.
Good stuff.
KIA plan to launch a new car that will operate Microsoft�s new OS version XP. The spokesman says that this new move will bring luxury to the car industry because of Microsoft’s OS.
“… It will be a more efficient car and certainly more compatible. Any service car can be provided at existent MCSA certified garages unlike other innovative cars like Mercedes and BMW that requires a more restrictive certification, thus closed standard�� The spokesman stated.
He added, This revolutionary car will cause Mercedes to fall off.
This article like Zack Zalon’s report was found in a disney newpaper purchased from the land of the Wizard of OZ.
P.S. Please note that this newspaper edition is sold with a thick joint of 6inches.
iTMS is already dead – so is Apple, and Luxembourg has too small a percentage of the world population to exist, so it doesn’t. You’re all doomed. Doomed I say. Please visit my website. Please.
At some point either Apple will need to license Fairplay so that other players will be able to support songs sold on iTMS OR license the DRM version of WMA so that the iPod can play crappy WMA tunes purchased elsewhere. If they don’t they will become a niche.
The questions are which route to take (open Fairplay or license WMA) and when (now, a month, a year, after 5 million iPods, etc…)?
Note: the other players could license the open MP4 standard(non-drm AAC) right now if they wanted to.
Spready, no one is stopping them. Others – not just Apple – support AAC as well. Fact is, instead of going with an open standard (mp4) they decided for MS proprietary format (WMA). They bet on who was coming out as customers choice.
They lost the bet and they have yet to realize that.
>> the large number of digital-music devices backing WMA will give it an advantage over iTunes, which interacts with only one player, the iPod.
If everyone is clamoring for an iPod as the digital music device of choice, who cares if there are a hundred WMA devices on the market? It’s irrelevant! One device with 70% of the market or 50 devices fighting for the other 30%?? It’s the player that is determining market success, not the format. And iPod is THE player!
After 5 million iPods (which is fast approaching) AND how in the world would THAT figure make it a niche player?
Fact is others d/l service are simply vanishing. How could you become a niche player when other players (literally) are lost in a drawer and no one use them to buy music?
Virgin “will try to differentiate itself … by offering a monthly subscription plan”
What balls! Is it Stephan Lynch who would make such a stupid statement, or some Virgin PR exec?
As for Apple’s system being closed, that is correct. You can talk about AAC being a standard available to everyone, but Fairplay is not available to everyone. iTMS tunes play only on iPods–it’s closed and that’s exactly what Apple intended. I doubt they will license Fairplay to anyone in the near future.
Not only that, but I agree with them. iPod owners have a great place to buy music. iTMS is one of the things that makes owning a iPod so great. Why endanger the success of iTMS by giving other online companies access to iPod business?
Licensing Fairplay to player manufacturers would be even worse. It would be giving away one of iPods big advantages–access to iTMS.
In the end, Apple will license WMA for use on iPods (or perhaps an iTunes WMA-to-AAC function) to make the iPod more flexible, but I doubt they will ever license Fairplay to anyone–it wouldn’t benefit Apple at all.
iTMS is not the thing to beat, the iPod is. If Virgin came out with an iPod killer then maybe. They can tie it in with their phone brand and maybe make money that way – but kill iTunes, no way.
this is hilarious..
I love richard branson, man, but.. he has no ‘balls’ coming out and doing exactly what you know MS is going to do in a few months… buying music over the phone..? wow that’s amazing… totally outrageous, but technically feasible!
It’s only a matter of time before people want to do that…*sarc
it’s like an arranged marriage of customer and technology…””you will love your portable media device….in time”
lmfao
why would anyone want to use anything other than itunes…
oh yeah.. since when does Virgin know any more than Apple about software?
Probably opening with microsoft money?
This is pretty funny. All these brain-dead “suits” rushing into a money-losing business. It’s like the “dot-coms” all over again. What none of these dweeboids seems to understand is that Apple makes money on the HARDWARE (the iPod); not the SOFTWARE (the iTMS).
I don’t see this as a paticularly frightening intervention. The success rate of virgin businesses is lower than Apples market share of the computer market with the phones business being the only relative success in recent years indeed since the airline which itself was only kept alive by the selling of the original music business (and much else) but presently pretty much keeps everything else alive, if not exactly kicking- butt anyway. Branson’s business might be a minnow compared to Enron’s but the hype around its performance leaves even it in the shade.
1) As reported elsewhere, the underlying tech in the iPod has the ability to play WMA, Apple just has it turned off. If at any point Apple feels they need to add wma, they can just turn it on (and probably pay Microsoft the liscense fees). So Apple is in a much better position then the strictly wma folks, Apple is ready for whatever happens. The iPod/iTunes/AAC continue to dominate, the others are screwed.
—–
2) Apple is also positioned well if the subscription service style thing becomes at all popular. They have been streaming stuff for years, have the technology and partnerships to do it. They have the infrastructure to do subscription billing. Radion is already built into iTunes, they can again just throw a switch and be competing.
—–
The thing to be careful of though is that so far the whole game has been centered here in the USA. The rest of the world is a whole different ballgame. Apple won’t be starting over but they have less of an advantage unless they can really get launched and out-market the others worldwide.
Want to know what KennyLucius predicts? Okay, since you asked so nicely, I’ll tell you.
Three years from now:
1) iPod will hold 20% of the marketshare, 35% of the user base for digital music players.
2) There will be 3 online music sellers: iTMS, Microsoft, and one other WMA-based seller.
3) iTMS will hold 50% of the online market share because iPod owners are more likely to pay for their music than the Walmart shoppers who buy other brands of music player.
4) Fairplay will work only with iTMS and iPod. WMA playback will be enabled in iTunes/iPods. No one will care that Fairplay is closed–they’ll be too busy explaining why XP is so wide open and Longhorn has slipped again.
I agree with a previous poster. At some point Apple are gonnna have to license Fairplay or allow WMA support. The market is jus too big for one player to control both the hardware and the format, exclusively. If Apple goes down that road for ever then Sony, Virgin, etc. etc. etc. etc. x 100 will all use WMA and M$ DRM and out compete Apple on the Music Store front too. I would suspect that Apple are currently building a head of steam behind Fairplay licensing ….
A subscription based service COULD work, but it would have to be at such a low price that no one would make any money. The path to the top of the mountain will be littered with the bones of companies like Virgin Digital.
These efforts fall in the category of ‘if it happens for 5 years it is on a permanent vector to infinity’. Like the people in 1900 who predicted the amount of horse droppings on the streets of New York in the year 2000.
They don’t understand WHY the wintel world is still dominating, so they can not infer why it wouldn’t, even with evidence to the contrary. It’s like watching people still buying into the stockmarket after the bubble, and afterwards when their money is gone they grab you and say “My stocks could go DOWN!! WHO KNEW!!?”
The fact that Apples product offerings, along with a good head start, could get it right, and that Microsoft might get it wrong and fail is as unlikely as the sun rising in the west. Scratch the ‘head start’ line. Apple walked into a stalled, logjammed, market and made it HOT. For awhile anyway, until more companies dump money into bad plans, and realize that just selling songs has a razor thin profit margin. Between free GREAT software like iTunes, a killer website (ITMS is not really a website, what Is it?) and a must-have mp3 player, APPLE has it nailed. Imagine Dell, or Gateway, or ANYBODY winning that Trifecta and being a serious contender.. I can’t.
(continued in next post)
(and the RANT goes on)
Actually, the only real threat (if that’s the right word) is the REST OF THE WORLD. Apple can sell more and more computers every year, but it’s ‘market share’ will drop if more PEE-SEAS are sold in Vietnam or Panama.
No offense meant, a low budget means you buy the cheapest, even if in the long run it costs more. I just don’t see a poor village in China buying an iMac over an eMachine for it’s library or government offices.
The same sort of thing can happen with music. Because after your local Chinese library gets an eMachie, the kids are going to want to buy tunes. And get the cheapest player they can afford.
I believe that this ‘globalization’ of computers is what’s costing Apple ‘marketshare’. For the people buying PEE-SEAS in the third world, Apple computers are not a choice. I know so many people who are switching or who have switched, that my jaw hits the floor when I hear how ONCE AGAIN Apple’s marketshare has dropped.
So what is it? If Apple goes up 2 percentage points in, say, the U.S. and the U.K., but the wages in Malaysia went up this year (I am speaking in hypotheticals) and every family bought a PEE-SEA, that could wipe out Apple’s gain?
I certainly welcome everyone to the world of computing, but I don’t want to hear about ‘95% marketshare’ if 5% of it is to customers who would NEVER buy Photoshop, or pirate it for that matter. I want that 5% in a different category. A category that might buy more ram a bigger drive. But NOT the category of $500 software packages and iPods. I want to see how big Apple is in THAT category. How big the installed base is.. This helps encourage developers to support the Apple platform.
‘Nuff Said!!
david vesey
Gobshite. When the medication wears off, he’s gonna feel really silly.
If the Apple iPod/iTMS combo is doing so poorly, why can’t I find an iPod Mini for my wife anywhere?
‘Gobshite. When the medication wears off, he’s gonna feel really silly’
Uh-Oh… does it SHOW?
Actually I’m on Ritalin and Oxycontin at the moment (prescribed by doctors.
I have this terrible disease, temporarily, that keeps me in constant pain). So I need to be drugged up to be pain free. The Ritalin keeps me awake.
Should I go back to sleep?
dv
Interesting angle. Had it occurred to you that Apple may be overdue in taking the non-USA world serously? Over here in Europe everything arrives, late, never or overpriced! And Apple customer service is a long running joke from Ireland.
Dear Mr. Zalon, here are a couple suggestions for your new service:
1. Ask Napster how well the subscription based model works. The answer might make you change your mind.
2. Lay off a third of your staff now while you can do so quietly. That way you can save yourself some embarrassment when your service goes public and fails miserably in the spotlight.
The iPod has outsold ALL of it’s competition without even blinking an eye (or is that an “i”?). For that reason alone, by using WMA, you are setting yourself up for failure. Now might also be a good time to go to Steve Jobs and grovel at his feet for the opportunity to load your store up with FairPlay AACs.
One last suggestion: put you resume on Monster.com as soon as possible because you can’t always get work right away when you need it – and you will by October of 2004.
david vessy (?!) writes: “Interesting angle. Had it occurred to you that Apple may be overdue in taking the non-USA world serously? Over here in Europe everything arrives, late, never or overpriced! And Apple customer service is a long running joke from Ireland.”
I hear anecdotes all the time about prices and service, but I’m curious about the actual disparity.
If the difference is indeed steep, then Apple is stupid to create a base of dissatisfied, and vocal, buyers of computer equipment.
But this is different from my “what IS marketshare” question. I’ve been blathering on for a long time, as well, about the Pee-Seas that occupy businesses and government offices, etc.
Why should THEY count towards a ‘marketshare’ of consumers who would buy legal downloadable music?
Counting a business computer in a gas station or a travel agency (as marketshare for, say, buying music) is like counting the number of people in cemetaries as part of a town’s population.
DV
$10 to subscribe to music that you can’t transfer to the iPod let alone keep? HA!
Why not just listen to (free) internet music streams instead? Granted you can’t choose the exact song you can listen to, you can choose the genre… Just click on the “radio” in iTunes.
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Zac Zalon??? Sounds like a bullsh!t porn name
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The purpose of ipod and iTunes is to sell more Apple computers.
Is it working?
The purpose of the iTunes online music store is to sell iPods. The purpose of iPods is to provide everyone with the ultimate portable music player, and also to make profit for Apple. “It” is obviously working very well!
OhWiseOne: – OhYes!
I won’t commend on when/if Apple should open up the iPod or Fairplay AAC… except to say that I don’t think the time is now!
But I will remind everyone of the momentum Apple has on their side:
* AOL
* HP
* Compaq
* Pepsi
* Future partnerships
* Best-selling music player (now with a new lower entry price)
* Biggest online music store success
* Constant great press–the standard against which other players/stores are measured
* A successful marketing campaign
* Insistence on uniformity–even overseas, despite the delay that brings
* A truly better easier-to-use products
* A major R&D effort making those products even better moving forward
And don’t forget that Apple isn’t alone in avoiding Microsoft WMA: Real and Sony have gone their own way too. (Real uses a form of AAC.)
Selling Macs is not the only purpose of iPods and iTunes: iPods alone are profitable and great for brand recognition–and the iTunes store even makes a tiny profit on its own now (contrary to some misconceptions).
Selling Macs IS a VERY important indirect benefit of iPods and iTunes. But that effect will be DELAYED. In two years, when a PC user is fed up and shopping for a new machine… they’ll give Apple a serious look because they love their iPod.
Don’t expect an immediate effect of buying an iPod and then rushing out for a Mac.
It is funny how they can predict the demise of iTMS before they even get their own venture off the ground.
There is such a thing as first mover advantage which Apple has got. Now Apple is(should be) concentrating on network effect of a preferred format AAC. Once that gets traction, it is all over for everyone else. Very similar story to how Microsoft became dominant on desktop OS front.
I think that at some point Apple should consider licensing out Fairplay and making sure they have a hand in no matter what digital music player is bought. Licensing it out will make them the de facto standard and avoid isolating Apple as we have seen in the past.
Even if they license out Fairplay, the iPod will continue to dominate due to its superiority of design. However, even if someone decides to buy a cheapo player, Apple will still get paid. On an even playing field I have faith that Apple products will win out. Having AAC Fairplay become the industry wide standard (industry wide meaning all players) would be a major blow to Microsoft which is following its old business model on this. Death of the WMA will be a major setback for them as it is a key factor for the digital hub strategy they are following. This would help promote the Mac platform.
I DON’T think Apple should support WMA. That is what the whole contest is going to eventually shake down to be all about. WMA vs AAC Fairplay.
End this madness! When will they stop saying that Apple uses a “closed standard” for music and implying (if not saying right out) that your music will only work in this closed environment.
OK, so iTunes Music Store AAC file are made for the iPod, BUT WHAT ABOUT THE 99.9% OF DIGITAL MUSIC THAT IS ON CD or coded MP3?
Hey Virgin, We can use all those CDs you’ve been selling us on our iPods too! Oh, that’s right, I don’t buy CDs anymore! I guess they loose either way!
Tonymosa: not only, my iTMS bought music currently play on my hi-fi chain at home, playlists on CDs play on my and friends cars, and obtaining mp3 for friends puters is also easy.
Indeed it actually is a *close* standard: close to any mean you like to listen to your(!) music.
The iPod could do WMA. Apple just does not want this (yet). is this :
A: because the’re idiots
B: they know they’ll make more money
C: WMA is an evil closed standard
I’m guessing B.
D. They’d be helping Microsoft to make WMA dominant and control the market as they like to do.
Gawd, not another Nostradamus wannabe?!? When will these companies realize that bravado like that shows fear. If you really thought you would trounce iTunes, then you wouldn’t need to say anything about iTunes. Thanks for the free advertising Virgin! =)
It’s quite amazing the number of people who chastize iTMS for it’s lack of WMA support. The reality is, they should be THANKING Apple for not supporting WMA in the iPod and iTMS! Why?
Think about it: Apple already has a commanding lead over the competition regarding sold downloads, just with AAC (and MP3) support, because of the iPod, and the iTMS shopping experience. Can you imagine how much BIGGER their lead would be if they did support WMA in the iPod and iTMS? It would truly be no contest, if that were the case.
Napster, BuyMusic.com, etc. should be on their knees, pleading for Apple not to support WMA, so that they can all stay in business a wee bit longer.
Very insightful comments. Apple does a great job with their music store and of course the iPod is a fantastic device. But the reality is that – over time – the WMA technology will land on cell phones, in some great portable music players, and in autos. As consumers, do we really care which codec is being used on a song so long as it sounds great and plays where we want it to?
As far as subscriptions, so far they have not fared very well. But before iTunes, neither had legal downloads. Once we can take the music with us on our portable devices, there will not be reason to buy a CD (or an a-la-carte download). The way that we interact with our music will change.
I read on this board that subscription is a failed model, but that’s what was once said about cable TV, too. I can imagine this scenario: I buy a portable-music player for $99, it holds 2,000 songs. I pay $9 a month for access to a huge library of content. I download 2,000 songs and fill my player up with the music. Every month, every new CD that comes out is now automatically a part of my library. I download the new songs, load them up too. I listen in my car, at home, at the gym, on the plane, etc.
The cost to me, over a 1 year period, is $120 for the music and $99 for the player. $219. That’s less than the cost of an iPod without the music. What doesn’t work about that? BTW: That’s less than the price of a single CD a month.
I don’t think that Apple is a failed model. But I also think that there are others who will succeed in this industry because they – just like Apple – want badly to create a great customer tool that provides tremendous value and is fun to use. Maybe we’ll see some of them soon…