Meh. I hate the idea of music subscriptions... I want to OWN all of my music, not rent it. I know I'd have to choice, but I don't want to see Apple give credence to the subscribe-and-forget-to-pay-and-your-music's-gone madness.
OTOH, a movie or TV show subscription a la Netflix would be amazing.
I also think Apple should make an agreement with satellite/cable companies to provide a discount on the iTunes Store to download shows you already have access to on your TV. Also, they need to partner with the networks to provide live streaming services for sports, local news, etc.
So, subscription services are great for some things, but I don't think the model scales well for music.
Now, I'm my 32GB iPod touch is getting here later this week (I didn't engrave it so I could sell it when they announce the new ones...), and I'm a MobileMe subscriber. I think that iPhone/iPod touch iDisk access is a wonderful idea. I agree with some of the previous posters; something like this would make me actually use my iDisk.
I think those of you who are so "against subscriptions" perhaps aren't realizing some benefits with a subscriptions service that you *can't* do with your bought music. For example: sharing music.
I think Apple is thinking *very* long term here on how to stay number one. Right now, the financial idiots, excuse me, analysts think only in terms of Wal-Mart, Target, and Best Buy. I think, long term, Apple looks at places like LastFM, iMeem, MySpace as their potential future competitors. You might poo poo a subscription service, but you can't put up your music library on the web and have people listen to your music (legally, unless you get agreements for the various recording studioes). With subscription music, YOU CAN. Think about the uproar when Apple disabled the ability (through bonjour) share your entire music library over the internets. With subscription music, you'll be able to do this legally.
Apple is looking to be king of media, but their weakness (the little it is) is in the social aspects of music. This aspect is not there right now in iTunes beyond your local area network. Think about that for a second. The closest thing to sharing music on iTunes is creating a playlist in the iTunes store, but guess what, if your friend wants to listen to that playlist, he/she has to buy the entire playlist. Again, with subscription music, the "purchase" mentality is no longer there. He/she (as long as they are a subscriber) can immediately listen to the playlist.
Again, I think those of you who are "poo poo-ing" subscriptions are only thinking about the "ownership issue." I *completely* understand this. I'm a big proponent of owning the music you buy, and *hugely* against DRM (if you do a search on my username, you can see all the posts that prove this). However, when I started thinking about the types of things that you *lose* when you own the music, that's when I understood why subscription music has a lot of potential.
You see it right now. Sure, iTunes music store is number one. Sure, Rhapsody/MySpace/etc. don't even hold a candle to the numbers that Apple does. However, the users who use these service are *intensely loyal* to these services. They *love* it. Yes, these music files on subscription services hold a TON of DRM. Yes, they're only renting the music. However, in some ways, there is a lot more that they can do *with* the music. I think this is the angle that those who are "against subscription music" are missing.
Ultimately, I prefer owning my own music, but imho the best services give their customer the "feeling" of choices and flexibility. Apple, with subscription music, could potential completely own the market even more so than the way they dominate right now.
w00master
