Apple’s Music Subscription Conundrum

Yahoo Music Unlimited is gone. Best Buy just bought Napster, which throws the retail chain’s current partnership with Rhapsody into question. So it’s with some relevance that CNET News asks whether or not Apple should ever enter the subscription part of the digital music business.

Music subscriptions let consumers have full, unlimited access to a service’s catalog—usually encompassing millions of tracks from all the major labels as well as independents—for a monthly fee of around $15 per month. Once the customer stops paying, then all of the songs stop working on any synchronized MP3 players and computers.

On the face of it, it’s a great deal, because you get to try new music all of the time without having to buy it. On the other hand, nearly all customers to date seem to prefer buying, and then owning, individual tracks and separate albums. Rumors have persisted that Apple would one day offer a subscription option, even though Steve Jobs said years ago that he thought customers just don’t want to rent music. Check out the article: it’s a good summary of the problem.

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