Apple to Launch Subscription iTunes?

[guzhogi]

As many of you have said, subscriptions are good for movies/TV shows, bad for music. How often do you watch the same movie? Probably not very frequently. Music on the other hand, you might want to listen to the same song everyday. Preferably being able to burn CDs, too so you can make mix tapes. Anyways, I wonder how the subscription will work, if Apple does it. Remove the movie after x number of days/plays? Or maybe something like Blockbuster/Netflix where you can keep & watch a movie as long as you want, but you won't be able to get more until you "return" it. Renting a movie, I'm not too sure about.

The only thing I would like is have the special features that come w/ the DVDs. I kinda like listening to the audio commentaries on DVDs & watching the behind-the-scenes stuff. Those are pretty cool. Just out of curiosity, do other countries have US made movies dubbed/subtitled in the local language? I have an uncle who's Turkish and likes US action films, but he speaks Turkish better than English. Having movies dubbed/subtitled might help.

 

[Xavier]

Napster! YA... not

Apple always made a big deal about 99 cent songs, why throw that all out the window with a LAME subscription theme.



LAME
LAME
LAME

 

[Stella]

Subscription is an addition, not a replacement.

You know, this thing called "customer choice"...

If the subscription model doesn't work well for iTunes, Apple can always dump it later.

Napster! YA... not

Apple always made a big deal about 99 cent songs, why throw that all out the window with a LAME subscription theme.



LAME
LAME
LAME

 

[Roads0]

MiniDisc User

I still use a minidisc player, so if Apple does this, I'll record all the music one month and cancel the next. I would do this with Rhapsody or Napster, but they dont support macs. DRM can kiss my...

 

[skellener]

Subscription for TV and Movies in iTunes would be awesome if they offered HD. Especially for the AppleTV. Where's the HD content Apple? C'mon already!

 

[peestandingup]

Yup, they would be crazy not to offer an "On Demand" type video streaming service for movies & TV shows.

One: Downloading videos takes up WAY too much space for many casual users.

Two: What if I wanted to ONLY watch a movie a couple times without downloading & storing the file on my HD?? With iTunes currently, its pay to own the whole thing or nothing.

Three: Have to sit through long download times. If it was streaming, it would be instant.

Four: AppleTV is perfect for this service. Hopefully, they will make it where you can do this directly through the AppleTV without your computer.

Five: They could offer HD movies that would look awesome + not take up gobs of your HD space.

Six: People could FINALLY say goodbye to their cable/satellite provider & only pay for the stuff they actually watch.

Bottom line, people wanna OWN their music, but NOT every piece of video they watch. Bring it on!

 

[SiliconAddict]

If so...we're going to need a bigger iPod.

Yah know I would like it if Apple had a limited subscription setup. One where you spend something like $5 a month. With that $5 you get an hour a week of music hand picked by Apple. New and original stuff. You keep the tracks for 30 days then links to that music stays in a bookmarks folder so you can always by it for a 10 cent discount off of iTMS. I'm not interested in a feeding feast for a subscription setup since I like owning my music but sampling at a discount? Sure. Why not.

 

[SiliconAddict]

I still use a minidisc player, so if Apple does this, I'll record all the music one month and cancel the next. I would do this with Rhapsody or Napster, but they dont support macs. DRM can kiss my...

Do you also go to blockbuster rent movies, rip them, and call it a "deal". Its amazing how people justify theft. I was in Microcenter this past weekend waiting in line, listening to a couple guys talk about renting movies from the library, ripping them and having their printers make perfect copies of the disk labels. It amazes me how blasé people have gotten towards theft. Heck even I BT but I'm not going to make an excuse for it. I'm ripping off the scifi channel ever time I download BSG. Yes I'm mainly doing it when I miss it on TV, and because iTMS's quality sucks. But its still ripping them off. *shrugs* Whatever. Carry on.

 

[aristotle]

Subscriptions require DRM, extremely restrictive DRM. It would be very un-Apple of them to go that route.

 

[dontmatter]

I will join the chorus for subscription movies (netflix) or possibly subscription music like emusic where you own it, although I find it odd to force people into set numbers of songs and agree to pay beforehand -- it just means they know they can extract more dollars because you'll think you're getting a good deal.

But here's what I'd like to see:

I'd like to pay by the hour, like netfilx's streaming feature, but with two modifications: first, each time you watch something, it counts towards ownership, until you've either paid as much (say, three watchings) as it would cost to buy in the first place, or you've just paid the difference. Second, to free you from the internet connection and those devices, you can download it, WITHOUT paying, and itunes/ipod/appletv/iphone will keep track of how many times you watch it, and charge when you reconnect.

This would be great, because it would take the stress out of buying/renting. Instead of guessing that you will watch something enough to make it worth buying, you just rent it until you've watched it enough, and then you own it. Instead of committing to the whole movie, you can "channel flip" to other things on your device or streaming at any time, and not pay for what you don't watch. And you could download things to put on your ipod that you might want to watch, and if you don't watch it, it's no problem. You're only charged for what you use, but you have instant access to anything you think you might use.

I could even see this model with music, too. If you read a good review, you can listen once, paying significantly less for that one listen, and once you've listened three or four times (and paid), it's yours forever.

The DRM could have a time limit on it so you can't just download, watch, and never reconnect, although I don't think this would even be needed, because iphone and appletv both have internet access, and your ipod, particularly when watching TV shows, is seriously disabled if you can't connect it to your computer, and the computer is definately nearly useless without the internet, so you'd have to end up paying somehow.

Anyway, it's not gonna happen, but I an dream, can't I?

 

[koobcamuk]

Bring it on! I'm willing to pay at least $100/month for a all-inclusive subscription.

errr what?

That's quite a lot of money - especially if I do the typical American - English conversion we usually see.

I am not sure how I could see a subscription working.

Second, to free you from the internet connection and those devices, you can download it, WITHOUT paying, and itunes/ipod/appletv/iphone will keep track of how many times you watch it, and charge when you reconnect.

How on Earth can you see this working? Just like on Ebay, people will create bogus accounts or something, go online, download a load of stuff, come offline burn it to DVD/never go online with same itunes account info.

 

[calculus]

Nowhere does it say music...

Since Apple (AAPL) launched its wildly successful iTunes music store... If you want to buy music from iTunes...

Rival online music stores... prefer iTunes to subscription-based music stores.

...even though music subscription services ...that’s why music fans haven’t embraced the model.

At this point I got bored counting...

So sorry I missed your personal attack.

 

[SLiM620]

I think this would be a cool idea if they made a version of itunes, in which u subscribe and download media, that was compatible with appletv and the iphone...if this did happen movie subscription would make perfect sence for the appletv (and the iphone for that matter) and a music subsription would make sence to me at least for the iphone although downloading movies directly to the phone might not be appealing because of edge, people download songs from there phone all the time and although its only .99 a song which is the starndard for music on phones with music download capabilities this would help to justify the iphones 4 and 8GB with no apparent way to expand...

itunes users (ipod owners for the most part) are used to haveing large libraries on there ipods and the iphone is the best ipod yet and 8GB is the largest offering which is not much at all as this 8Gb also has to hadle all the phones features and extras (im assuming ) so a subscription might be an atractive offer

us spoiled ipod users dont want to constatly take songs off they paid .99 a peice for or 14.00 for the cd (9.99 on itunes) whenever something new comes out because theres not enough room which explains 30 and 80GB ipods (most people, at least that i know who have nanos or minis have libraries that reflect the size they chose and those of us with large libraries want 30 or 80 GB because we paid for them so we want to have them available all the time, at least thats how i feel) i would be much more willing to take a song off if i had a subscrition rather then buying them one by one, ... i could see apple makeing a music subscription part of the iphone plan rather then a universal option, this would make the iphone much more appealing to the 80GB ipod owners without replacing the ipod itself, (until they see how well it does possibly expanding availability in the future to appletv users and mac users) and include a version of the itunes store on the iphone, this would also open up the possibility to stream music to your phone from the store, when they move to 3g or as a wifi feature, as part of the plan which would also be a huge space saver (i.e. the appletv)

as far as movies go a universal subscription makes more sence because of the sheer size of movies...again the iphone is one of the coolest portable movie players and with a subscription you could have 1 or 2 new movies every couple of days on your iphone without paying an arm and a leg and you wouldn't fill you phone with movies...in terms the apple tv and ipod most dont watch movies over and over like they listen to music and everyone already knows that an itunes version of netflix would be awsome so no need to kill the subject....

looking into the future...i ran across an article that compares the new sandisk/yahoo sansa player against ipod and suggest that it is in fact better then the ipod and it proves many very good points http://playlistmag.com/news/2007/04/11/sansa/index.php and if customers had the OPTION to use itunes in the same manner as its yahoo opponent it would be perfect for some future wifi enable ipods, with smaller flash memory which would help apple to retain the ipods sleek design and include wifi at the same time.... and if wifi ipod/iphone/ tv/mac users were all able to share and suggest downloads to other users like this sansa player does, you could further injure four birds with one stone, zune/smartphones/WMC/PCs, which is always good, and further promote the convergence of apple products...a subscription sounds like a good way to tie these together....it may happen it may not, .. i really don't even know if all this is even possible.... and yea jobbs is trying introduce DRM free music to itunes...but hes not getting rid of DRM altogether either ...the key is customer choice

 

[Darkroom]

i think it would be a fine idea if Apple offered both subscription and non subscription to everything on iTunes...

 

[210]

Subcription

If there is any truth in this, I'm sure it's mainly for movies and TV shows. I guess there is nothing wrong for music to be included in this. I think Apple is still trying to push for DRM-free music to buy and then there'll be a DRM subscription.

Ideally, there should be option of what you would like to rent: movies or TV shows or music or a combination of any of the above. Again, this will push AppleTV sales just because of the movies and TV shows.

 

[3nm]

i don't mind as long as they keep the $0.99 model.

 

[gnasher729]

Whether a music subscription is for you or not definitely depends on your life situation. If you are young and have no music collection on your own, a subscription is worth more than for someone having 10,000 songs in iTunes already.

That said, what would be a great offer would be a mixture between subscription and purchase. Lets say a subscription for $15 a month, and with that subscription you can also purchase songs up to $30 a month for half price. So you can spend $15 in a month and own nothing, or you can spend $30 in a month and own $30 worth of music, or anything in between. For pure subscribers and for people who buy a lot of music this would be a win-win situation. The music industry would also benefit because people would tend to purchase more music, and the more they spend, the more money the music industry gets.

 

[DaveTheGrey]

when you get 80gb of music through subscribtion, how can you organize this amount of files on an ipod without having folders available?

Is anyone out there who solved this problem?

 

[3nm]

when you get 80gb of music through subscribtion, how can you organize this amount of files on an ipod without having folders available?

Is anyone out there who solved this problem?

playlists

 

[DaveTheGrey]

playlists

have you tried to organize 80gb of music with playlists?

 

[3nm]

have you tried to organize 80gb of music with playlists?

playlists, yes

playlist, nope

 

[DaveTheGrey]

playlists, yes

playlist, nope

do you have one playlist per album? and if so how do you name them? Artist - Album?
if you do so how long is you list of playlists?
80gb / 3mb a song / 16 songs per album =1666 playlists

or do you use one playlist per artist, but if you do so how can you find the third track on a specific album when an artist got 9 albums?

in itunes I'm using folders -> genre/artist/album = folder/folder/playlist
perfect for finding music, if I don't know exactly what i want to listen to.

front row? perfect. it uses my folders.

ipod? gnark... that's why I can't buy a bigger ipod. I wouldn't find anything on it.

and with subscription it would become even worse.

Dave

P.S. I'm a music lover with a really big library

 

[Bonte]

that's a bit excessive for me....

$100/month is maybe to much but how much are you willing to pay for unlimited access to movies, series, music, books and games?

iTunes can become a full replacement for a cable-network (and more) but with pick and choose content when and where we want, a revolutionary new way of working with media. I can't see the servers or network keeping up with this, iTunes accounts for 17% of US website traffic and this model would multiply the traffic.

 

[3nm]

do you have one playlist per album? and if so how do you name them? Artist - Album?

if you do so how long is you list of playlists?
80gb / 3mb a song / 16 songs per album =1666 playlists

or do you use one playlist per artist, but if you do so how can you find the third track on a specific album when an artist got 9 albums?

i use playlists for my own fav songs. 8-20 songs per playlist.

in itunes I'm using folders -> genre/artist/album = folder/folder/playlist
perfect for finding music, if I don't know exactly what i want to listen to.

front row? perfect. it uses my folders.

ipod? gnark... that's why I can't buy a bigger ipod. I wouldn't find anything on it.

and with subscription it would become even worse.

Dave

P.S. I'm a music lover whith a really big library

i don't know if i'm missing something... but, can't you do the same on ipod? i.e. music > genres > artists > albums

 

[GregA]

What can I say that hasn't already been said?

I don't want to buy every movie I watch - many I only watch once. Nor do I have the space to save them all on my network. I hope Apple addresses this in some way.

There are many existing models for watching movies.
1) DVD purchase model - pay $15 for a DVD
2) DVD rental model - pay $6 for an overnight rental,
or pay $3 for 3 nights (older release) and $2/week for oldest.
3) PayTV channels (eg: $10/mth for HBO) - a subset of movies from a group of studios. Any single movie shown over a 4 month period, subset of movies updates continually.
4) VoD/PPV on cable - $6 per film (similar to DVD)
5) Subscription model rental (fixed cost for a number of rentals/month)
6) Ad supported on TV
etc

Apple uses model #1, and could create other models I guess.
I'd like to see them match the DVD rental model - without me having to go to the video store.

Why is Apple not offering HD content? <snip> The amount of data is huge. My MacBook Pro is filling up fast and I only have a few TV show seasons and no movies. If I keep downloading, soon I will be out of space

This is hugely important. People don't have the space. A subscription model or rental helps here because it's not stored long term. Who wants to buy a movie that they have to throw away (ie. delete) a month later?

Another alternative is for Apple to allow us to buy a movie and store it in our "virtual library". We could then delete it from our local disk, but re-download when we want it.

Apples final problem is bandwidth. A free-for-all subscription service would affect Apple's connections and possibly the whole internet. We need some interesting innovation here.

If I could subscribe to a netflix type of service and even better, a cable subscription service [all I can watch tv shows], then they really will have a cable/tv replacement. That will change the entire industry hands down.

Even cable TV doesn't provide all-you-can-watch systems. They are ad supported, and PVR recordings don't count towards ratings which would make the entire AppleTV service uncounted.