Apple News: Subscription model, DRM-free music, iPhone
Thursday, April 26th, 2007
- Apparently, Steve Jobs hasn’t changed his mind on the subscription model, yet. “Never say never, but customers don’t seem to be interested in it,” said Jobs, to Reuters. “People want to own their music.”
Um, yes, this is one of many reasons why eMusic is doing so well. You subscribe to a plan, but also own the music. It gives the labels some certainty, while still allowing people to own the music they download. Sure it would cost quite a bit more, if it involved the major labels, but a hybrid subscription model, like eMusic, from iTunes would be hugely popular.
- Hypebot argues that Apple isn’t really into the whole DRM-free thing. If Apple wanted to, says hypebot, they could have had indie labels selling DRM-free music already. While it’s true that they could have had indies selling DRM-free music (like eMusic) on iTunes, I think that Apple is more concerned right now with putting pressure on the majors. The indies will fall into place later, by their logic. This Reuters article seems to back me up.
- Coming in “late-June”…the iPhone…I wouldn’t be surprised if this inches back even further from the early-June date they gave in January.