Daring Fireball: Subscription Small Print
I've argued previously that subscription based services will not work, and this guy agrees.
But he doesn't point out:
- it's a cultural issue, as Steve Jobs has noted time and time again. People like control and ownership of their music. It's personal to them. They relate to it much differently than they do, for example, movies. It's used differently. And right now, the subscription model is not very portable at all--the shift towards home entertainment servers is particularly damning in this area.
- entertainment culture is moving towards personalization and greater customization. This is predictable vis a vis the age of the entertainment industry and subsequent markets. Cable television is slowly being pushed out by on-demand, Tivo, and other methods of time shifting. This shift will result in less demand for a subscription model and will encourage a more customized model. So if the entertainment business is moving this way, music will follow if by default.
