I've been thinking about this for a wile. Yes, we are used to "own" recorded music or movies in a physical support (even the digital files are somewhere in a physical support), and sometime to re-purchase the same material when a new/superior format appear. The concept of "owning" music and movies is in fact just connected to the distribution of the content through physical media, last century was vinyl, than tapes, than CDs, than DVDs, and now are just bits through internet.
If we think about it, music and movies have value only when we listen or watch them, not when we own the support where they are recorded. So, in my opinion, it's only natural that in time the concept of "owning" recorded materials will go away and in 20 years it will look so last century.
Even today, if I think that I spend around $2,000 a year in recorded music and movies, and I need space for those CDs, LPs, DVDs and hard drives for those files (more money in fact), I will gladly pay a reasonable fee each time I listen to a song or watch a movie. After all, there is a limited number of songs and movies that I can listen to or watch to in a year. But I will gladly give up my illusion of ownership only when the content will be delivered in a reasonable hi-res format, ad-free, temporarily recorded on my device for convenience, and almost limitless choice of content. The recorded content industry in not there yet, but in 10 year?
(more people should try it; it's not as hard is it sounds) wouldn't mind paying a small amount to watch shows on my computer without having to pay for each episode; maybe some sort of a rental season pass. I'm personally not interested in owning individual or entire seasons of TV shows ala the iTunes model. Once I watch it, I'm done.
