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Apple to Offer Unlimited Music Plan?

DTphonehome said:
Whaaaaat? Oh please, who wouldn't pay an extra $20 to have unlimited music that they get to keep? No way, no how. The record companies would NEVER agree to that.
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I agree. I mean, put this in line with current schemes:

1. $1 per song, keep forever, play wherever.
2. $10+ per month, keep for one month, play wherever.
3. $80 per device, keep forever, play on one device.

Seems like $20 in the last option puts you in the "subscription model" price range without having to pay for any more than two months.

The fact that a subscription will play on multiple (currently non-iPod) devices seems a bit arcane, as most folks only have one device to begin with (although my family has several, all of which sync up the same account's music).

Seems like the record companies are giving away the store here, quite literally. Given their general level of greed, I can not see this as being anywhere near acceptable to them.
 
It's probably unlimited access on the device itself. Not sure if you are allowed to play the music on your desktop or not.

arn
 
Maybe this is for future Wifi enabled devices. Now that the iPhone and iPod can download tracks directly from an iTunes Wifi store... the next step would be to make it "free" but disable the ability to sync it all back to your Mac.

That would also make the $20 offer a little more reasonable. $20 to fill a 160-gig iPod? That saves you thousands upon thousands. But $20 to fill a 16-gig iPhone seems slightly more reasonable. 🙂 Still, $20 sounds too good to be true.

Would love it if it happened, though.
 
this is outrageous!

MacRumors said:


Financial Times reports that Apple is currently in discussions with music companies to allow customers to have unlimited access to the entire iTunes music library in exchange for paying a premium for its iPod and iPhone devices.

The plan sounds similar to Universal's Total Music plan in which the cost of music is embedded into the music player itself. Based on the wording of this article, it seems Apple's version of the plan adds the cost on top of the iPod or iPhone.

The negotiations are currently being held up due to disagreements in pricing. Apple is reportedly only offering $20 per device, while Nokia is playing almost $80/handset for a similar plan. Other possibilities appear to include a subscription based service for iPhone users ($7-8/month, for example) with the capability to keep up to 40-50 tracks/year even after the subscription lapses.

Historically, the Financial Times has been a reliable source of information with early details of Apple's plans to introduce iTunes Movie rentals well ahead of its release,

Article Link
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Being in artist management, I cannot overestimate my rage at these corporations going for plans to give music away for a percentage of their goddamn hardware or - even worse (as in the case of the Universal plan) - to force music fans to watch their stupid advertisements. Yeah, that's right. You have to watch a Mazda add playing "Zoom Zoom" for you before you can listen to Miles Davis Kind Of Blue, and probably also a viagra add between the tracks. And Apple - So you think your iPod is more important than the music that's being played on it? Don't give us any crap about "not being able" to protect the artist any other way. This is the most outrageous grab there is out there, and does not serve the interest of the musicians or the music lovers.
 
arn said:
It's probably unlimited access on the device itself. Not sure if you are allowed to play the music on your desktop or not.

arn
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I don't know about everyone else, but I play music on my Mac a lot. If I could only play it on my iPhone or iPods I don't think that'd be enough for me. But if it's a premium per device, and you can pay the premium for your Mac too, then I guess I might choose to pay the premium for my Mac and my iPhone and potentially an iPod and would be perfectly happy.
 
actcochise said:
Being in artist management, I cannot overestimate my rage at these corporations going for plans to give music away for a percentage of their goddamn hardware or - even worse (as in the case of the Universal plan) - to force music fans to watch their stupid advertisements. Yeah, that's right. You have to watch a Mazda add playing "Zoom Zoom" for you before you can listen to Miles Davis Kind Of Blue, and probably also a viagra add between the tracks. And Apple - So you think your iPod is more important than the music that's being played on it? Don't give us any crap about "not being able" to protect the artist any other way. This is the most outrageous grab there is out there, and does not serve the interest of the musicians or the music lovers.
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Please tell me where in what you quoted it says anything about advertisements? It says, "In exchange for paying a premium for its iPod and iPhone devices"
 
actcochise said:
Being in artist management, I cannot overestimate my rage at these corporations going for plans to give music away
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You're right... but interestingly this seems to be Universal's idea to start. But in the end, it will devalue music altogether. People will feel like music is simply "free".

arn
 
overanalyzer said:
I don't know about everyone else, but I play music on my Mac a lot. If I could only play it on my iPhone or iPods I don't think that'd be enough for me. But if it's a premium per device, and you can pay the premium for your Mac too, then I guess I might choose to pay the premium for my Mac and my iPhone and potentially an iPod and would be perfectly happy.
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I suggest using an audio cable for the audio-in port in your computer, problem solved. Pain in the ass that it is, it's more of a band-aid.
 
I bought a zune 80 for the sole reason of using the subscription service. If this turns out true I might consider getting a classic iPod.

It is $15.00 a month with the Microsoft service and if you really feel like beating the system you can just run your download through TuneBite and it will strip the DRM. But alas I am too lazy and just pay the $15.00 every month.

edit: Why do I find it hard to side with some dude ranting about ads when his profession is "artist management"?
 
This makes PERFECT sense for the record labels

However, the price will not be $20. It might be something like $50 or maybe even $80. Ask yourself this: How often does the average teenager actually pay even $1 a year for the music he listens to? He torrents all of it or grabs it from his buddies. He is NEVER going to be buying CDs, or even downloading for pay. But, he does buy a new ipod every two years. So, you won't get him to buy the 5-10 CD's a year he might have bought 15 years ago, but you can get him to pay the itunes ipod access fee every other year, because it's built in when he replaces his ipod. Sure, your gross revenue is less, but your production cost is FAR less, you're just sticking bits on a server. You are still raking in huge net profits and you have a business model than now works again for you, and it's one that most people can't, or just won't, try to get around because they want an ipod and, hey, now they get a bunch of "free" music with it.

This also becomes a way to thwart piracy (or pay for it) in pirate happy lands such as China IF the ipod can establish traction in such a place, and, I think it can, the branding is good enough if the pricing is right. Obviously, it would be a cheaper, stripped down ipod with a lower royalty fee to fit that market. But it would be a lot more income than they are getting from such a market now, which is close enough to zero to be zero.

I for one, would have no issue paying $20, 50, or even, maybe, 80 bucks extra for my ipod if it meant I could get unlimited access to all the labels stuff on Itunes and keep 30 songs a year DRM free that I could move anywhere I wanted. I know I'll cycle my ipod every two or three years, so that puts my "music usage fee" at 2-3 bucks a month. I can dig that. I can support that. That's what it SHOULD be costing. And, the labels will still ROLL in money - money they would never have expected to see from most of those users. And, they can still sell CDs and online singles, and etc and derive profits from those things. At some price point, a fairly low one, this makes TREMENDOUS sense for the labels. If they can't see that, they are foolish. Oh...wait...maybe it won't work. 😕
 
Did they say when this would happen because look at the iTunes store.
 

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It sounds pretty crazy but it'll be interesting to see if anything comes out of it. I can only imagine the record companies holding out for a price that no one will want to pay.
 
This sounds overly complicated, something Apple has never been about. Didn't Steve say something about people wanting to own their music?
 
arn said:
You're right... but interestingly this seems to be Universal's idea to start. But in the end, it will devalue music altogether. People will feel like music is simply "free".

arn
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i think music should be free. and 'artists' should be happy people want to listen to them. and 'artist management' should stop what they are doing and find other people to leech onto.
 
I don`t understand why there are so many people not interested in something that is just a rumor yet... (*cough cough*, remembers me of all the flaming on the "fat pod" before apple actually launched the latest nano line. and when it did, guess what? It`s the best selling mp3 player)
I just think people should wait and see.
Actually... people should think different 🙄
 
don't want unlimited music

I want unlimited movies and TV shows please! Things I tend to really only view once.
 
bennypod said:
What i mean is i think they are doing maintenance because the broken chain things are all over the store. I dunno can u see them?
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Oh yea, I get that all the time because sometimes iTunes freaks out or my school connection freaks out. I just overlooked it, as I see it everyday at one point in time.
 
Sounds like a great idea to me. For a low flat rate I'd pay to be able to refill my iPhone over and over again from the iTunes store.

This would be even better if they offered an Audio option and a Video option. With music I like to own it and listen to it forever but I'd be less concerned with that if I was just dealing with TV shows or short films.
 
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