When Apple raised the curtain on its online digital music store a year ago this week, there were more than a few skeptics in the audience. Why, they asked, would websters buy something they could get for free through numerous file-sharing networks? Well, after selling 50 million songs through its iTunes store, it’s apparent that Apple is doing something right — and its success has spawned a coterie of pretenders itching to carve into the Cupertino, California-based company’s 50 percent share of the online music market.
After years of pushing subscription services from long before the introduction of the iTunes Music Store, you'd think they'd have figured out that people really actually would rather own their music, whether that means buying it legitimately or downloading it. Seriously, no matter how often and how loud the subscription horn is tooted either by the tech press or the companies themselves, the numbers show that nobody's buying into the hype. The totals from iTunes alone show that consumers still prefer to own music, not rent it. Subscriptions aren't as attractive as they sound. You're tied to listening to them via computer, can't put your supposedly paid-for music onto a portable player to take with you, and the services may not host all the music you like anyway. Unless Microsoft does something really amazing with Janus that really does let you take your subscription with you, and some WMA licensee makes a really amazing iPod killer to put it on, and every single label all signs on at once, AND all this is done in just such a way as to make it completely invulnerable to hackers and crackers, it'll just never fly. And that's a LOT of if's.
But the whole subscription things begs a lot of questions about how precisely it would be used, and how people perceive the nature of their music and entertainment purchases. Currently I have a great free subscription service - it's called the radio. Granted it doesn't always play what I want, but it also relieves me of the decision making process of scheduling out all of my music listening choices. I personally like the aspect of having a 'library' of music, physical or electronic in which I have a practical selection of music that I have invested in, both financially and emotionally. I don't particularly see any advantage of a subscription service nor how an effective interface could be developed to manage a large online everchanging music library. Granted interfaces can be developed, but given the lackluster performance of all the other iTMS competitors trying to reproduce what we have today, I hold small hope that they'll be able to tackle a subscription service effectively. I cringe when I think about all of the potential pricing complexities and interactions. How do the labels and artists get paid? By the download? By the number of times played thus implicating a massive tracking system/invasion of privacy? A movie subscription service makes sense, since because the decision making process of what to watch, given that you're going to be investing a couple of hours, is completely different from selecting music for a 2-3 minute time investment. Generally, I leave my iPod and iTunes on random mode so it's like a private radio station without the annoying personalities and exclusively made up of music that I've selected. The best I could hope for in a subscription service would be a 'smart playlist' based on some listening preference criteria, but I fail to see the advantage over selecting an appropriate radio station (or a satellite radio station). I think that fundamentally the people designing these offers simply don't understand the music buying and listening decision process of the majority of people out there. iTunes reproduces the buying and owning experience of today that people understand and can relate to. The only missing piece is the physical media, and you can bet that I back up my purchased music on CD, so it's practically the same thing, with the advantage of the immediacy and a smaller physical storage requirement since it's all in AAC. There are a slew of logistical problems to look at for the long term - how will they (and the users) manage an ever growing library that must be maintained online for dynamic downloads? Will songs expire? The iTunes experience guarantees that the moment the music is on your system, and if you burn it to CD, you have a guarantee of longevity. All of the investors are enamored with the service model since it (theoretically) provides for a stable growing revenue stream. I wish them luck, but I think that most of the investors are throwing away their money.
did you really think people are so new to this that they didn't know that there were already subscription models long before itunes? that is why itunes succeeded, because they were smart enough to realize people can't stand subscription models.... not from anyone.... and they can't stand "renting" music that they've always owned in the past..... that was the secret ingredient that made itunes so successful..... geesh.... do some research into how old the subscription services are......... and how stupid and unsuccessful it has been.... remember they existed LONG before itunes.... jon.
While this may be appealing to some people who don't care to own their music, I would never waste $10 on a monthly subscription service. I buy about 10 songs a month, every month. I'm certainly not going to pay 19.90 a month for 10 songs through a subscription service when I can get the same 10 songs for 9.90 elsewhere.
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Apple Rivals Ready Ways To Knock Off iTunes
Posted by: John P. Mello Jr. April 27, 2004 11:13 AMWhen Apple raised the curtain on its online digital music store a year ago this week, there were more than a few skeptics in the audience. Why, they asked, would websters buy something they could get for free through numerous file-sharing networks? Well, after selling 50 million songs through its iTunes store, it’s apparent that Apple is doing something right — and its success has spawned a coterie of pretenders itching to carve into the Cupertino, California-based company’s 50 percent share of the online music market.
Seriously, no matter how often and how loud the subscription horn is tooted either by the tech press or the companies themselves, the numbers show that nobody's buying into the hype. The totals from iTunes alone show that consumers still prefer to own music, not rent it.
Subscriptions aren't as attractive as they sound. You're tied to listening to them via computer, can't put your supposedly paid-for music onto a portable player to take with you, and the services may not host all the music you like anyway.
Unless Microsoft does something really amazing with Janus that really does let you take your subscription with you, and some WMA licensee makes a really amazing iPod killer to put it on, and every single label all signs on at once, AND all this is done in just such a way as to make it completely invulnerable to hackers and crackers, it'll just never fly. And that's a LOT of if's.
Currently I have a great free subscription service - it's called the radio. Granted it doesn't always play what I want, but it also relieves me of the decision making process of scheduling out all of my music listening choices. I personally like the aspect of having a 'library' of music, physical or electronic in which I have a practical selection of music that I have invested in, both financially and emotionally.
I don't particularly see any advantage of a subscription service nor how an effective interface could be developed to manage a large online everchanging music library. Granted interfaces can be developed, but given the lackluster performance of all the other iTMS competitors trying to reproduce what we have today, I hold small hope that they'll be able to tackle a subscription service effectively.
I cringe when I think about all of the potential pricing complexities and interactions. How do the labels and artists get paid? By the download? By the number of times played thus implicating a massive tracking system/invasion of privacy?
A movie subscription service makes sense, since because the decision making process of what to watch, given that you're going to be investing a couple of hours, is completely different from selecting music for a 2-3 minute time investment.
Generally, I leave my iPod and iTunes on random mode so it's like a private radio station without the annoying personalities and exclusively made up of music that I've selected. The best I could hope for in a subscription service would be a 'smart playlist' based on some listening preference criteria, but I fail to see the advantage over selecting an appropriate radio station (or a satellite radio station).
I think that fundamentally the people designing these offers simply don't understand the music buying and listening decision process of the majority of people out there. iTunes reproduces the buying and owning experience of today that people understand and can relate to. The only missing piece is the physical media, and you can bet that I back up my purchased music on CD, so it's practically the same thing, with the advantage of the immediacy and a smaller physical storage requirement since it's all in AAC.
There are a slew of logistical problems to look at for the long term - how will they (and the users) manage an ever growing library that must be maintained online for dynamic downloads? Will songs expire? The iTunes experience guarantees that the moment the music is on your system, and if you burn it to CD, you have a guarantee of longevity.
All of the investors are enamored with the service model since it (theoretically) provides for a stable growing revenue stream. I wish them luck, but I think that most of the investors are throwing away their money.
that is why itunes succeeded, because they were smart enough to realize people can't stand subscription models.... not from anyone.... and they can't stand "renting" music that they've always owned in the past.....
that was the secret ingredient that made itunes so successful.....
geesh.... do some research into how old the subscription services are......... and how stupid and unsuccessful it has been.... remember they existed LONG before itunes....
jon.