Will be supported by $5 a month tax on each media player that manufacturers make capable of using the service.
Universal Music Group’s chief Doug Morris has long been angry over Apple’s 29cents take of each 99cents music track sold on iTunes, going so far as to partner up with Rhapsody, Wal-Mart, Google, and Best Buy to offer DRM-free versions of music only available at much higher prices on iTunes Plus.
Now Universal is rumored to be in talks with other major record labels to launch an industry-owned music subscription service called “Total Music” that will ostensibly make the need to actually purchase music tracks unnecessary, and thus further challenge the dominance of iTunes in the digital music marketplace.
The plan is to get media player and cell phone manufacturers to make a “Total Music” capable device that incorporates a $5-per-month subscription fee in the price. The record labels would get the subscription fee of course, while manufacturers would be able to offer a product to consumers that could rival the dominance of devices like Apple’s iPod.
What’s interesting is that the plan seems to follow the advice of fabled music producer Rick Rubin who said recently that the music industry’s future lies in a subscription model like cable TV.
“You would subscribe to music,” Rubin explained, as he settled on the velvet couch in his library. “You’d pay, say, $19.95 a month, and the music will come anywhere you’d like. In this new world, there will be a virtual library that will be accessible from your car, from your cellphone, from your computer, from your television. Anywhere. The iPod will be obsolete, but there would be a Walkman-like device you could plug into speakers at home. You’ll say, ‘Today I want to listen to … Simon and Garfunkel,’ and there they are. The service can have demos, bootlegs, concerts, whatever context the artist wants to put out. And once that model is put into place, the industry will grow 10 times the size it is now.”
The method with “Total Music” may be different, but the result is the same.
The only big question is whether manufacturers will be able to charge consumers a price that is high enough to cover the subscription fee costs demanded by Total Music. According to Business Week, the cost per player would be about $90. This figure is based on the assumption that people hold on to their music player or cell phone for 18 months before replacing.
Trying to sell a device with an extra $90 bucks tacked onto the price may be tough unless you consider how it stacks up to the Apple iPod model. With the iPod you dish out several hundred dollars and get music for the fairly inexpensive price of 99cents. With this Total Music plan you get a music player for around $200 bucks perhaps and then get unlimited free music on-demand.
The only real flaw in the plan that I can see concerns whether or not the devices will also be allowed to play content from ones personal MP3 music library. So far there are not enough details to conclude one way or the other.
Stay tuned.
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Ahh another “In my perfect world”. Invention. The fact is who is going to want a cool “on demand music” that you can only listen to in high bandwidth hotspots and home. Maybe if it remembers your songs. But then it would just be an ipod that you have to constantly pay for… and besides who wants to pay $5 a month for songs you have had for months? Instead of just paying $1.. or nothing. Putting it on an iPod and keeping it forever? TV Subscriptions are worth it because it requires large bandwidth for it. Besides that might be gone before too long since you can do it all on your pc… hook your pc to your TV. Enjoy nice HDTV programming etc.
I would rather have FREE songs period.
Why so complicated? Just have the consumer pay $5.00 a month. If I could play the music in enough places I’d subscribe. I already pay a monthly fee for Satellite radio Internet Service Cable T.V. and for Rhapsody (I listen to Rhapsody; I NEVER buy tracks!) Unless of course it would be $5.00 per device then that would suck. Any way glad to see that things may be changing for the better randomly though they may be.