Just in case you’re wondering if Steve Jobs has changed his mind about offering music on the iTunes Store in any form other than purchased downloads, here’s a reality check, courtesy of Reuters:
Not gonna happen.
“Never say never, but customers don’t seem to be interested
in it,” Jobs told Reuters in an interview after Apple reported
blow-out quarterly results. “The subscription model has failed
so far.”
Are you sure Steve? I mean, mayb…
“People want to own their music,” he said.
Cool. We hear you. I do think Steve is basically right, of course, as I’ll explain after the jump.
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People do have an interest in sampling a wide variety of music, but
mostly they can tell what they like from 30-second samples. If
anything, renting music is a rip-off unless you’re a high-volume user.
It’s much like Netflix. If you’re receiving, viewing and returning your
DVDs the day they come in the mail, it’s one of the best deals in all
of entertainment.
If, on the other hand (and on my hand, unfortunately), you take weeks
to watch the DVDs currently on hand, it’s a dramatic waste of money.
There might be a place for subscription models of music downloading,
but I think unless you can keep a certain number of sampled songs once
you kill your subscription, it’s largely empty. Maybe it’s just time
for companies to create a music subscription service that costs $15 a
month for unlimited access. The only way I’m interested in this service
is if I get to keep my favorite 10 songs from all the ones I downloaded
at the end of the month — otherwise, it’s not really my music.
Thanks, Evan!
Image via Yahoo.
2 responses to “Jobs: People STILL Don’t Want to Rent Music”
Man you should have started Spotify! You were way ahead of the game. I just got spotify and i’m telling you Itunes just got a serious competitor on it’s hands. It’s basically going to evolve into 15 dollar a month subscription plan. People will be paying just 15 bucks a month for UNLIMITED music. Also important is it’s ability to transfer songs to your Ipod.