Microsoft Prepares Alternative To Apple iTunes

bmarklein writes "According to CNET, Microsoft is working on a version of its DRM software that supports expiration of files on portable devices. Combined with a subscription service like Pressplay (soon to become Napster) that allows unlimited "tethered" downloads, you'll be able to fill up your high-capacity player with new music for a flat monthly fee. Of course it will expire once you stop paying the sub fee, but which do you think is the better deal: $7500 to fill a 30GB player (7500 songs at $1 each) with iTunes Music Store, or $120 a year with the ability to swap in new music whenever you want? How much is it worth to you to "own" the bits?"

Comments

$7500???? That's a little far-fetched

[foolsdragon]

Some of those 7500 songs will come in the form of full albums, which are only $9.99, and frequently come with more than 10 songs. Put me in the Own My Bits camp.

A better alternative already exists!

[Groucho]

I'd rather go somewhere else where the music is better, the downloads are virtually unlimited and the sound quality is the best of any subscription service on the net (Lame VBR encoded MP3s).

What am I talking about? EMusic of course.

No, they don't have stuff like Britney Spears and Led Zeppelin, but they have more excellent indie, experimental, electronic, metal, jazz, punk, classical and uncategorizable music than you could ever listen to in a lifetime. If you're sick of Clear Channel bullshit and hungry for something exciting and interesting, it is a feast.

And you get to keep every single file you have downloaded. Permanently.

(I know they had some trouble recently with their new servers wbut that seems to be resolved now)

Re:Renting vs Buying?

[Graff]

it will be a matter of weeks before a shareware maker comes up with a program that takes your aac files...tricks iTunes into writing them to a cd Image and then allowing you to rip to mp3 from the cdImage

You mean like this program? It takes the audio output from pretty much any source, including a running program like iTunes, and encodes it into mp3 or AIFF. It can even pipe the sound data into a command-line program so you can encode using FLAC, Lame, Ogg, or whatever.

Pretty sweet program. You can even use it like to do timed recordings of internet radio shows, kind of like a Tivo for streaming audio.

No, sir, it just isn't a good deal.

[dr.badass]

Of course it will expire once you stop paying the sub fee, but which do you think is the better deal: $7500 to fill a 30GB player (7500 songs at $1 each) with iTunes Music Store, or $120 a year with the ability to swap in new music whenever you want? How much is it worth to you to "own" the bits?"

Which of these is a better deal? :
1) Pay $1 now, get the one song you want to hear, keep it forever.
2) Pay $10 now, get the one song you want to hear, keep paying $10 a month for the right to listen to it.

Apple pretty clearly has a better deal if you buy ten or fewer songs a month (or 120 songs a year). I suspect that this suits a very wide variety of people.

Beyond that is a grey area, where the better deal basically depends on how much you value the convenience of not having to pay a monthly fee whether you use it or not.

At the other end are those who could conceivably want to download (say) 30GB of music in a month, which is certainly more than I can listen to in that time. Ignoring bandwidth costs on both ends, these users are probably just as likely to use P2P services and not pay anyone at all!

The emphasised ability to 'swap in' new music implies that every month you'll want to download all-new material. Not bloody likely, in my experience. But then, if you don't download new material, what exactly are you paying for? The right to listen to music you already paid for!?

The worst part about this kind of scheme is some people can actually be suckered into it.

[This post also makes the rediculous claim that filling up a 30GB iPod is going to cost you $7500,
which ignores the fact that nobody is going to actually do that. At some point, even your average idiot realizes that it'll probably be cheaper rip CDs he already owns, (and those newly purchased -- yes, even people with iPods still buy CDs from time to time!) -- it makes me wish I could mod the whole story as a Troll.]

I am interested in hearing realistic scenarios in which the subscription service actually is a good deal, but I've yet to hear one thus far.