Check out the opening line to this Reuters article about the iTunes subscription content Apple released today:
Apple Computer Inc.’s iTunes music and video store on Wednesday took its first step toward a monthly subscription model with a new service called Multi-Pass that lets users buy TV shows on a monthly basis.
“First step”? I sincerely doubt Reuters knows something about Apple we don’t know, inasmuch as Apple’s ultimate goal is to establish some kind of subscription-based service. I dunno if this is bad writing, agenda-pushing, or wishful thinking. In any case, it’s idiocy.
This follows later:
Apple has so far resisted calls from media companies and competitors to adopt a monthly subscription fee favored by the likes of Napster and Real Networks Inc.’s Rhapsody, preferring an a la carte download model where music tracks cost 99 cents and videos $1.99.
And they should resist those calls. Why would Apple want to do what its competitors call for anyway? The subscription-based services are getting their ass kicked by iTunes. The reality is very simple: Content that updates frequently fits a subscription model, and static content fits a purchase model. “The Daily Show” and “The Colbert Report” are updated frequently, 16 times per month according to the article, so a subscription makes sense. The soundtrack to “The Producers” that I bought a few months ago will never change, so I want to buy it once and have it forever.
My kingdom for competent tech writers.
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March 9th, 2006 at 9:52 pm
“Content that updates frequently fits a subscription model, and static content fits a purchase model. ”
Ya know, it’s really obvious, but I’ve never thought of it that way. Good way of putting it.
March 10th, 2006 at 11:15 am
I think most media subscription services should be called “rental” services. Think of a magazine… When you subscribe, you get a new magazine every so often, and you keep the magazines you’ve already received. The subscription service never takes them away from you. That’s the same thing Apple is doing with the news shows. If you rent something, it’s taken from you when you stop paying. That’s how iTunes’s “subscription-based” competitors work.