As if Apple hasn’t done enough to change the music industry, the smartest company on Earth may now be on the verge of giving away all music - for free! Well that is…with the purchase of an iPod.

Apple is currently in negotiations with music companies to provide an unlimited access option to its iTunes store for Apple iPod and iPhone customers, according to a report by The Financial Times. The plan covers music only and would offer customers the opportunity to either pay a one-time lifetime access price to the iTunes’ music library, or a monthly subscription fee, according to the report.

[PC World]

From my understanding, that “one-time lifetime access price” would be included in price of new iPods. Seems like a great deal to me. Besides, it’s not like we’re all going to stop buying iPods anytime soon…

Apparently, this subscription model is called “all you can eat,” and according to ZDNet is necessarily for Apple to adapt if it wants to continue to succeed…

The bottom line here is that iPod sales are starting to stagnate and Apple needs a deal like to stimulate future interest. Partly this is down to the fact that pretty much everyone who wants an iPod already has at least one. The problem with the iPod is the ubiquitous nature of the device. You can get them in different sizes and different colors, and some come with more features than others, but after you’ve handled a few they all start to taste like beans. Apple has done wonders with the iPod, cramming support for video into the device, and a phone, and a touch screen interface, oh and the Internet, but all this leaves you wondering what’s left to add. Apple can keep on adding more capacity, but let’s face it, not many people are going to fill a 160GB iPod with stuff they bought from iTunes. Taking the capacity up to 200GB and beyond is just wasted capacity for most iPod owners.

Enter the “all you can eat” iTunes subscription model. If the trough is free (or at least gives the impression of being free because folks will have paid upfront) all of a sudden storage capacity becomes relevant again. The more storage you have, the more music (and video) you can cram into your ‘Pod. Owners who have maxed out their storage will buy newer iPods (or a second or third iPod) so the upgrade cycle is no longer linked to obsolescence. Also, since the easiest thing for Apple to do to keep the iPod fresh is to keep bumping up the gigabytes on the iPods, it means that Apple can unveil new iPods with increased capacities at regular intervals. Apple wins again, and shareholders can breathe a sigh of relief.

[ZDNet]

What does everyone think?

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Categories: News
Tags: Apple