The Labels Are Still Trying To Make Money

Will he agree? Steve Jobs that is. The labels are going to beg him next week to add a music subscription service to iTunes. Universal Music will be the first to start negotiations, and the rest are going to follow the lead.

The labels are hoping to make more money off of subscription services, since customers would ideally be consuming more music. The labels would each take a portion of the monthly payments, and would receive money from licensing fees each time the songs are played. There are also thoughts about approaching Jobs with ideas for variable pricing with songs.

Whatever Jobs decides, the labels basically have to follow, due to the fact the iTunes is responsible for 75% of online music sales. This could be a favorable opportunity for Jobs though, considering it would be one more way to sell his iPods. There is also talk of giving a discount to subscribers who use iPods.

I still have an issue with not owning the music though. Subscription music is nice for songs that are a trend for the week, but there are some songs that I genuinely like and would want to purchase. I do not see the subscription service as an either or situation, but if Generation Y does latch on to this idea, I see us as paying for both the subscription service and still buying favored songs. There is still the issue of what happens if for some reason iTunes decides to start this service and then stop it. Customers would lose all of their music that they rented.