I agree with all the first two comments I read. I want to OWN my music. I'll listen to a song countless times. Movies on the other hand would be better off rented. I don't like the BUYING movie concept. You are going to watch a movie a few times max, and that MIGHT be in a 3 year time span.
MUSIC = BUY
MOVIES = RENT
Blockbuster got it right years ago. No need to try and reinvent the wheel.
And clearly, if you and Blockbuster think it should be a certain way, then that's how it should be. People don't need choices, they need corporations and random individuals to lock them in to particular modes that might satisfy most people, even if they don't satisfy all people.
Frankly, as a film buff, I _DO_ want to buy certain films. The idea that I shouldn't have that option is absolutely asinine.
I want the option to rent most movies, and buy the ones that I might want to keep. And, honestly, NO current vendor has the right model for this. I can subscribe to netflix and tell them I "lost" a movie, but then I don't get the full set of a box set, the nice box for the disk, nor the booklet that goes with it. I just get one disk at a time. That's stupid. I can't just easily convert my rental from blockbuster into a purchase (and if I just forget to return the rental, I also don't get the box, the booklet, etc.). That's also stupid (but practical, considering the inventory realities of blockbuster's rental model).
I should be able to subscribe and sample what I want without owning it, and then choose to keep/own longer term copies of things that I decide are worth owning. This is true for both movies and music.
And, ideally, you wouldn't be able to tell the difference between "owned from the start" and "converted from subscription/rental to owned". Buying it would immediately get you all of the extra stuff (booklet, bonus disks, cover art, etc.).
So, no, Steve Jobs doesn't have it right. I would immediately sign up for a subscription to iTunes, and if the songs I download that way aren't going to be permanently available in my library, then I would ALSO buy songs from iTunes when I came across something that I know I want to keep in my collection forever. And I might ALSO buy CD's (I still do that, too).
iTunes ought to give you:
a) an option for subscriptions to all of their data (all types: movies, tv shows, songs), but that you wont keep indefinitely (stop being able to play it if your subscription lapses or can't be verified for some reason?)
b) an option for "renting" data (like a subscription but with a one time watch/listen, something like $.10 to listen to a song once ... and it may or may not count as a discount if you buy the song) (or, instead of "one time", it would be "unlimited times in 24 hours" or something).
c) an option for the current model of buying copies of data, that will stay in your library even if your subscription lapses, or you're in a situation where the device can't verify your subscription, etc.
d) an option to buy PDFs and similar material that duplicates the box-art and booklets that go with the other data if you had bought physical versions of it.
e) an option for buying non-DRM data, based upon the policy of the individual IP owner, instead of based upon a store-wide policy.
If iTunes did all of that, I can imagine iTunes eventually being my only source of this music/movies/tv. Though, that somewhat depends on how easy it is to access old/classic movies, which is a bit easier to do with netflix. But if the netflix and itunes catalogs were identical, and iTunes offered all of the above choices, I wouldn't want/need netflix at all. I'd probably drop DirecTV too.