04/11/2007, 4:10pm, EDT
Wednesday, April 11thApple ponders iTunes subscriptions?
Apple is reconsidering its attitude towards iTunes subscriptions, research group INTENT MediaWorks claims. Company CEO Les Ottolenghi said today that discussions with Apple staffers had led him to believe that the iTunes Store will see a subscription service within six months despite Apple's previous insistence on a-la-carte downloads."Apple is seriously considering a subscription offering right now even though they will probably tell you otherwise," he asserted.
Ottolenghi added that while veteran proponents of subscription services were faring relatively poorly, such as Napster and Yahoo, he believes their failures were more the result of a chicken-and-egg adoption problem where Apple's command of the market reduced the awareness of subscription choices, reducing the demand for (and incentive to use) the music rental model. Inside Digital Media analyst Phil Leigh agreed.
"The number one factor retarding the acceptance of the subscription model is the dominance of Apple," he said. "The idea of subscribing to music is new to most consumers so when the dominant player doesn’t talk about it, the idea seems out of the mainstream."
If offered in a copy-protected form, the subscription service would openly contradict Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who famously launched 99-cent downloads for the iTunes Store in April 2003 with the argument that buyers would prefer not to "rent" their music. The company's recent agreement to drop DRM for EMI's music would also oppose the strategy by encouraging shoppers to pay for unrestricted individual downloads.
However, the INTENT analyst didn't provide details as to the exact subscription format, which could more closely resemble the eMusic approac. The second-place online music store currently requires monthly subscriptions but offers permanent copies for every download.
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Apple, give us a rental or subscription service for these and I will seriously consider it. For music though, I think it should remain a buy per track/album system. The music rental systems haven't made a dent in iTS so far, so I see no reason they should be too concerned. And I think Steve is right that most people prefer to own music over renting it, especially now that the DRM walls are beginning to crumble. Going subscription for music now , which would necessitate DRM, would be a huge step backwards IMO.
While I have purchased a few TV episodes from iTS, I can't see myself purchasing movies any more than I'd purchase DVDs (I've only bought about 10 DVDs since they first became available, and I think I only bought 5 or 6 VHS tapes before that)... but I DO rent movies (DVDs or "On Demand") pretty frequently.
For me, music and video are fundamentally different in terms of how I use them, and what I want in terms of "ownership." I hope Apple does offer a subscription/rental model for video, but please don't get rid of the ability to "buy" music!
Perhaps a combination of both could be possible. Try a show out for a while, and if you like it, you can use the money you've spent on the subscription towards the cost of buying it. Since Apple has finally made such a good decision to do something similar with buying individual songs to albums, it would seem within the realm of possibility. I've been paying for software licenses for years now this way, and it makes a high cost seem extremely reasonable. Perhaps prices could work in such as fashion for iTMS.
Biggar
Apple allows purchase. XBox allows rental. But, neither allow rental with option to buy. This is what I think the industry is really missing.
Apple really needs to beef up the Apple TV storage space and provide HD movies and TV shows before I consider buying it.