RSSApple close to offering subscription music service?
By Ed Oswald | Published March 19, 2008, 1:01 PM
Fresh off of a deal with the movie studios that effectively reversed the company's position on rented content, it now appears Apple may also be about to embrace a subscription-like model for music.
According to a report in the Financial Times late Tuesday, the company is currently in discussions with the major labels over licensing their content on a subscription basis. So far, it appears the biggest roadblock is price.
Apple is said to be offering the record industry about $20 per device -- iPod or iPhone -- sold to give its customers unlimited music downloads from the iTunes store, which would be split among the labels according to market share. It currently appears as if the industry feels this is insufficient.
By comparison, Nokia is offering the labels about $80 per device, according to reports. The handset maker has struck a similar deal where its customers are granted unfettered access to partners' music catalogs.
The sudden embrace of subscription content by Apple after years of pushback could be a case of simple market trends. Sources told FT that research has shown consumers would be willing to pay either $7-8 per month, or a one-time charge of $100 for unlimited music downloads.
Both options appear to be on the table in discussions. The report points to one option where up to 40 or 50 tracks could be downloaded per year, which would be transferrable to other devices, and would remain in the consumer's possession even after the subscription lapses.
"I won't speculate whether the rumor is correct or not but I can say that it does make sense," remarked JupiterResearch analyst Michael Gartenberg. He pointed to Apple's work in movie rentals as laying the groundwork, and noted the company would market it well as another option to enjoy music from iTunes.
"Add in the fact that any service would work in the whole ecosystem of iTunes supported devices and the proposition looks very good for something like this to succeed where others have struggled," Gartenberg concluded.
I'd drop my Zune and buy an iPod the week iTunes offers a subscription model. I promise.
I wish they had done this years ago. When will they learn? I'm sure there are a lot of us out here that absolutely refuse to buy songs one at a time.
The subscription model works much better for me and I am stuck using a Zune until Apple learns to be more flexible.
Corey Creed
www.HippoIM.com
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I hate the subscription model because in most of these models you lose access to the content if you stop paying. I don't see how "renting" music is fair to the consumer. I'll stick by my personal consumer mantra "Buy it and control it."
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I can see that this move by Apple is also in a way, making an agreement with the consumer and the music creators. This is something that is well needed, since we (consumers) want the low priced music and the others (music creators) need payment fot their efforts.
The companies like Apple, since they are in the position of wanting to make profits in this area are a useful tool to achieve some kind of agreement and compromise between consumer and Creator, and distributors of music and movies too.
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I am a big fan of subscription service and even bought Zune last year. Unfortunately the device had a hard drive failure after five weeks of use. Overall I was quite disappointed with the quality and the service (support staff suggested that I should buy another one. They refused to replace Zune, saying that hard drive failure is a common problem?)
I never bought an MP3 player since but if Apple starts offering subscription service, I'd be the first one to buy an iPod or maybe even an iPhone.
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Your story reeks of BS, you bought a Zune after 5 weeks they wouldn't cover it? Unless you got it used or without a warranty, that's not MS fault. I bought one from woot! A refurb and the battery was drained I called and they sent another one instead and has been working fine since.
I am curious how well this will work, I wouldn't mind a subscription service to itunes.
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I bought into the Zune subscription service when it first came out, and I cannot think of a better $15.00 a month investment. I no longer buy CDs though unless it's something so phenomenal that I can't stand the idea of losing access to it -- CDs have become more of a library item as a physical hard copy these days.
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Yes, I agree with pen_b. I use a Sony Walkman with Rhapsody. Best $15/mo. ever!!
I really like the iPod Touch. However, I won't use iTunes. If Apple switched to a subscription-based system, that might be the ticket for me. It seems like you never really own the music anymore anyway. If I don't own it, why let it take up space on my hard drive or my shelf? For a service with as much content as iTunes, I would pay even more per month for unlimited access to all the audio/video content.
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