I believe this work because I believe it would simply serve as a radio station for the Music labels. There's entirely too much music out their wanting our attention/money. We could never spend the time it would take to listen to all of the new music and certainly not pay for all of it. We only have so much time/money to afford to the pastime of music. Therefore, we rely on the radio to sample songs from any given album. We trust our favorite artists to continue to put out great stuff, album after album. We listen to our friends and critics when they rate the artist in question.
Ultimately, there's only so much time/money that can be devoted to music. Unless it was more mobile and we could sample on-the-go.
For that reason alone, I believe this could work. People MAY download thousands of tracks, but really only groove on mere dozens. But I think that in order to get the Music industry onboard with this, limitations must be set up…
1) I feel that it should only be bundled with the highest priced/best iPod/iPhone Apple makes. It just wouldn't be fair to offer a $50 premium for this service to those buying a $49 Shuffle. Also, Shuffles get their music transfered to them via the computer -- not safe enough for the music execs. More on that below.
Also, by offering it on the most expensive models, Apple would be able to add to the pile of money offered to the music companies ($50 from the customer/$50 from Apple: $100 for every new iPod/iPhone with the plan -- perhaps Apple kicks in even more, music labels all the happier.)
2) You could not play music on your computer with iTunes. You could not create a playlist and burn a CD of the music. In short, you could only listen to the music by the device that has the premium service. You cannot transfer any of the music to another iPod/iPhone you own. One service per device. Period.
3) You can't use any type of dock that will send the music to a home stereo system. You can only listen to the songs from either headphones or out of the iPhones mono speaker. Period.
4) Files are all 128kbps double-wrapped in security. Even EMI iTunesPlus music must be dumbed-down from its 256kbps. No exceptions.
Why all the restrictions? We don't like restrictions. No but without them, the music companies won't go for it… but with them in place…
… With these type of restrictions in place, I think everyone would be happy. Apple is selling lots of high-end players, the Customer is enjoying music that he has never heard nor, in many instances, would ever even consider buying. And the music industry is getting a nice influx of immediate cash plus the bonus of free advertisement of their music…
With all of the restrictions placed on this service, eventually what will happen en masse is that people will WANT to listen to many of the albums they've grown in love with in other ways: their cars, homes, etc. and will also want to have the music in its original uncompressed state. They will go out and buy real copies of their favorite CDs because, lets face it, headphones are ok but it could get a little old. People really want to listen out of their speakers. This simply serves as a try-it before you buy it-type system.
The way to distribute the music would simply be only through the Wi-Fi iTunes music store. A user already has video, photos and his favorite music on his unit already. He can only download so much at a time to sample it. He cannot transfer one note of that music to iTunes when he reconnects to his computer so there's no way to Hi-Jack the music. He simply listens on the device that been approved for the unlimited downloads. Apple creates an easy way to Delete on-the-go so he can grab music when he feels like within the wifi setting he finds himself in. That limitation will allow for a steady flow of new music to the iPod and people having to make real choices about whether they want the actual CD for everyday use in the car, for parties, work etc.
As I've said, people only have so much time/money for music. That's why piracy abounds. Also, I believe people buy the stuff they really want for a really perfect version of their music, but only pirate stuff they're simply curious about. Stuff they would never actually go into a music store and buy. And stuff they really wouldn't listen to that much either unless it was really good. Then they would, many times, go and purchase the unfettered version.
It's very much like Netflix. We rent a movie we're curious about, watch it and send it back when we we're done. However, the movie industry wins when a gem comes to our house in its red sleeve and we end up loving it. We want the ability to watch anytime we like. We want the supplemental discs of the purchased version. Now imagine if was an inferior version we were watching. Low compression and we could only watch it on one TV set. We'd want our very own version that looked and sounded amazing and that would work on any device we wanted. We would go buy that version, right?
Same principle applies here. There's real opportunity here for music companies to let us fall in love with new artists or artists we've never gambled on with our wallets. We fall in love and go buy the CD and the next time the same artist or group releases their next collection, we're standing in line at the store with our wallets open.
