"iTunes Unlimited" Rumor

[Newby]

http://blog.wired.com/music/2008/08/details-rumored.html

It's an interesting idea, as kids would go apeshit at the idea they can download more than a dozen albums and make up for the price... and it honestly might be enough to combat casual piracy for people with a decent amount of money. Suddenly they can download whatever they want and as long as they're under a subscription, they can listen to it. And you can always delete music you don't like, and buy the music you do like (officially), although I'm sure it would cost $0.99/song too.

What made me sad though, was:

- $129.99 standalone or $179.99 with MobileMe, current MobileMe subscribers can add iTunes Unlimited for $99.99

So, if you were an existing MobileMe customer, you can tag it onto your account for an additional $100, bringing your total subscription cost to $200. If you have neither and get both, it's only $180. You save $20/yr for not having jumped on the stupid MM bandwagon!

It's sad companies would screw their "early adopters" like this, and between screwing their EAs and butchering their planned releases, Apple's fucking up lately. What if those people want the iTunes Unlimited? Could they backup their data, cancel their account, and re-register?

[Warrior]

Zune Pass: 14.99 since '06

[Newby]

http://www.zune.net/en-us/products/zunepass/default.htm:

For the price of just one CD a month,

I'm guessing there's some discount for buying in bulk of three months, but 15*12 = $180. This would beat the price (and I'm guessing, but won't swear to it, the selection) without a doubt.

[Warrior]

http://www.zune.net/en-us/products/zunepass/default.htm:

For the price of just one CD a month,

I'm guessing there's some discount for buying in bulk of three months, but 15*12 = $180. This would beat the price (and I'm guessing, but won't swear to it, the selection) without a doubt.

It probably does, but it's a hell of a lot more friendly than paying it as a lump sum. Zune Pass tracks also integrate flawlessly with Zune Social so my friends with the Pass can stream music right off of my Social page to their Zune and have it synced every time they tether to a PC.

I'd say this may compete with the Zune Pass of 2006, but this year? No way. Maybe if they extend it to TV Shows, Movies, etc. then it'd be very worth it... but until then I'd probably pass on it.

[Hitmen]

What the hell is with your zune ball sucking crap in any thread related to apple. We know you like it, no one else does, gtfo.

[Warrior]

What the hell is with your zune ball sucking crap in any thread related to apple. We know you like it, no one else does, gtfo.

I'd troll the living daylights out of you, but you tend to cry.

[Sidoh]

What the hell is with your zune ball sucking crap in any thread related to apple. We know you like it, no one else does, gtfo.

I'd troll the living daylights out of you, but you tend to cry.

I see what you did there. tricky tricky.

[MyndFyre]

My favorite part of the article is this:

- 256-Kbps music; highest quality digital music subscription service ever

Too bad Amazon Music already does that.

Apple's typical marketing line: "Ooooh, look at us, we're doing what a lot of other people are doing it, calling it 'usable,' charging more markup than Sony, and then saying how awesome we are.  And people can't complain that we're doing it because Microsoft did it to us first!"

[Camel]

I heard rumors that Amazon was going to start selling (DRM free) FLACs to combat the iTunes monopoly, following the expected outcome of some court case. I wish I could remember more details; I'll look in to it if my load at work dies down later today.

[Warrior]

Competition is good, things like this happen.

[Camel]

Competition is good, things like this happen.

It isn't really about competition, in this case. The point is that Amazon may get the right to sell the music without DRM, whereas Apple will not. Since the iTunes music store is indeed a monopoly (as a function of its superiority), it's going to come down to whose lawyers are more expensive.

I really don't care who has the cheapest subscription, or whose music is DRM-free; I want my music to be high quality, and you can't getdownload that (legally) anywhere on the internet, period. I tend to preview music in the iTunes music store to find what I like, and then go steal it from somewhere else. If I can't find a good quality version of it, I just go buy the CD and rip it as a FLAC.

[Warrior]

Competition is good, things like this happen.

It isn't really about competition, in this case. The point is that Amazon may get the right to sell the music without DRM, whereas Apple will not. Since the iTunes music store is indeed a monopoly (as a function of its superiority), it's going to come down to whose lawyers are more expensive.

I really don't care who has the cheapest subscription, or whose music is DRM-free; I want my music to be high quality, and you can't getdownload that (legally) anywhere on the internet, period. I tend to preview music in the iTunes music store to find what I like, and then go steal it from somewhere else. If I can't find a good quality version of it, I just go buy the CD and rip it as a FLAC.

I believe it is driven by competition, if not entirely. Look at the NBC fiasco where they ran to Zune after iTunes wouldn't give them (what in my opinion as well was) terrible pricing schemes. So they ran to the next best service, who obviously embraced them for the sake of content. Same thing goes with some albums wanting to restrict downloading albums song by song, etc.

As this market splinters more away from Apples juggernaught and more into a market of alternatives which each vendor having a sizable piece of the pie, I think you'll see even more and more things like this.

For a non Apple perspective, you can look at the inclusion of WiFi in players which largely started (albeit weakly) iin the Zune. This paved the way for other units with more functional WiFi, and I think pushed the envelope on it (Now the iPod Touch uses it in it's browser)

[Camel]

What? This is totally different. The court could be potentially applying affirmative action to an otherwise free market. It's a pretty dangerous precedent to set, IMO.

Does the iPhone allow you to purchase songs directly yet? From what I understand, they didn't do this originally because they were worried about being called a monopoly, but since that has since happened anyways...

[Armin]

I still hate Apple for taking 50% of all sales on iTunes. After the record label, manager, and producer all take their share, the artist is only left with 20-30% per song, which is usually split 4-5 ways, so in most cases each member of the band only makes about 5 cents per song sold. Apple leaches money off of the talent.

[Newby]

Does the iPhone allow you to purchase songs directly yet? From what I understand, they didn't do this originally because they were worried about being called a monopoly, but since that has since happened anyways...

Yeah, if you're on a wireless network.

[MyndFyre]

I really don't care who has the cheapest subscription, or whose music is DRM-free; I want my music to be high quality, and you can't getdownload that (legally) anywhere on the internet, period. I tend to preview music in the iTunes music store to find what I like, and then go steal it from somewhere else. If I can't find a good quality version of it, I just go buy the CD and rip it as a FLAC.

You REALLY can hear the difference between 256 VBR and FLAC?  C'mon....

[Sidoh]

Yeah, there have been some informal studies I've seen that show humans can't really tell the difference.  Maybe it's because the majority of us have crappy sound equipment, though.

[Newby]

But FLAC is guaranteed to be CD quality, so you can always re-rip at a lower bitrate if you need to conserve for space. You can't do that with MP3... unless you don't mind transcoding.

[Warrior]

What? This is totally different. The court could be potentially applying affirmative action to an otherwise free market. It's a pretty dangerous precedent to set, IMO.

What?

Yes though, I do think Apple has a monopoly on the digital music market. It's always good to have alternatives. An example of Apple leading (At least psychologically, they technically were not first) in pressuring competition to embrace and idea is DRM.

Jobs called for the striking down of DRM (Which while a publicity stunt, since Apple is probably second only to Microsoft in the DRM love fest.) and it quickly became a domino effect of people latching on to the next big thing. It started with only EMI, and has grown into a full blown movement since then.

Same goes for mobile browsing, they changed the landscape. As a result, others have tried to as well.
So yes, this is very driven by competition. People react positively to subscription music. It's a smart move by Apple, even if it does come with that almost characteristic control-freak type restrictions in place like lump payments and MobileMe inflexibility.

[Camel]

I still hate Apple for taking 50% of all sales on iTunes. After the record label, manager, and producer all take their share, the artist is only left with 20-30% per song, which is usually split 4-5 ways, so in most cases each member of the band only makes about 5 cents per song sold. Apple leaches money off of the talent.

I've never heard any statistic saying the artist gets that much from any sale, other than from merchandise. What source are you using?

You REALLY can hear the difference between 256 VBR and FLAC?  C'mon....

Go buy one of their MP3s and spectrum analyze it; I will put money up that they're not V0.

[Sidoh]

The difference between 192 cbr and V0 is extremely noticeable, I think.  I almost always go with V0/V2 when I get music, but I'll only do FLAC if that's the only format available.  Sure, it has its advantages, but for playability and convenience (it takes more effort to put it on a music player), they suck.

[Armin]

I still hate Apple for taking 50% of all sales on iTunes. After the record label, manager, and producer all take their share, the artist is only left with 20-30% per song, which is usually split 4-5 ways, so in most cases each member of the band only makes about 5 cents per song sold. Apple leaches money off of the talent.

I've never heard any statistic saying the artist gets that much from any sale, other than from merchandise. What source are you using?

My band's music is on iTunes, and that's how much Apple pays us. According to our record label people and all the other people in the business we know, it's that way for bigger bands too. The rest of the math was based off of our record deal, which is a very common deal.