Apple isn't going to add any kind of subscription or rental (yes, I get the difference) for iTunes music until there's a good business reason to do so. Right now, the Zune is eating up sales of every other MP3 player, but isn't touching iPod marketshare. It's doubtful that the Zune ever will.
MSoft's Zune music store offers buying/rental options, plus a ton of other features that iPods don't have. But nobody seems to want Zunes, anyway. Because all of those options lead to confusion. Some tracks can be burned to CD, some can't. Some will "expire" sometime in the future, others won't. Who wants to keep track of all that? What could be worse than firing up the MP3 player, only to find that the song you have a jones for suddenly blew up?
The iTMS is successful for one reason only. It just plain works. It offers a better buying experience, period. Adding rentals, or even subscriptions to the mix would have to be done very carefully to avoid ruining this experience.
I had a subscription to Audible.com for a while. And I liked it. But I dropped it eventually because there would inevitably be those few months where I didn't find any books I wanted, and then I felt like I was paying for nothing (even though I had gotten books cheaper other months). The same problem exists with Netflix. Once in a while I get too busy to watch a movie that I get for three weeks or so. And then I realize that I just paid $15 to watch that movie once, when I could have bought it at Target for $12.
I don't agree that there's no market for buying movies. The DVD sales business has been doing fine for years now, despite rental being available. Not everyone buys movies, but enough people do for Apple and the studios to make a lot of money. I agree that the quality must improve, and adding the special features would be a good way to increase sales. But I don't think that adding a rental, or even a subscription, option is by any means a "do or die" proposition for Apple. I think they're just fine for now with purchase only.
You are exactly right. Most of the people here who are opposed to a music rental model seems to assume it would be the only option. If Apple brings out a subscription model for music, I assume it would be in addition to the current song/album model.
Bingo! Its not an 'either-or' thing. If Apple offered subscriptions, it would be alongside its current purchase model, it wouldn't replace it.
And it would kill the Zune's last hope ('FREE ZUNE if you sign up for a 2 year subscription', yadda yadda yadda) stone cold dead. I myself would never subscribe, but I hope that Apple does offer it as an option.
CNN = billions of dollars in fake news!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
As opposed to what... FOX, and its 'unfair and unbalanced' news?
CNN does annoy me sometimes, but overall they seem to be one of the better TV news sources. Of course, you're better off reading the Washington Post or NY Times online, and/or subscribing to the Wall Street Journal and The Economist.
They all do a great job, and you get a nice mix of conservative and liberal viewpoints as well (NYT is quite liberal, WSJ is extremely conservative, for example).
Do you think that maybe your iPod has an older firmware version than the one JeffDM is talking about?
Well being a 2G it obviously does, but I have the latest 2G firmware update on it. Fairplay does nothing on an iPod other than check to see if a key is stored. The key uploaded on the day the song was last authorized. That's all. iPods were made as slaves to iTunes as far as Fairplay goes, as long as the copy of iTunes that did the last sync is authorized the iPod has a valid key. There is no ability to timeout, no need to. There hasn't been for 7 years.
I am slightly amazed to now hear this supposedly on an iPod several weeks after the first reports of exactly this happening to people with Zunes that do have the timeout built in to service the subscription/rental functionality.
For the last word see this Apple iPod Authorization Page
Quote:
Do I need to authorize my iPods?
No, you do not need to authorize your iPods. Your purchased music needs to be authorized on your computer before you copy it to your iPod. For more information on copying and playing your purchased music on your iPod, check out our iPod FAQ.
Fairplay does nothing on an iPod other than check to see if a key is stored.
Well, it then has to use that key to decrypt the song and play it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hiro
as long as the copy of iTunes that did the last sync is authorized the iPod has a valid key. There is no ability to timeout, no need to.
We seem to have some evidence to the contrary. Perhaps JeffDM is mistaken, perhaps he isn't. I can't say for myself, because I've removed the DRM from all my iTunes downloads.
Your suggestion that "there is no ability to timeout" is rather absurd. It is pathetically easy for an iPod to know how long it has been since it was last synched to a computer, and to refuse to play protected songs after a timeout period.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hiro
For the last word see this Apple iPod Authorization Page
I fail to see how that is a "last word" on the matter. This has nothing to do with "authorising" (as in, having to enter iTunes Store passwords and the like) an iPod. It has to do with later versions of the iPod firmware ceasing to play protected content if it hasn't been connected to a computer for a while. I'm not saying that they definitely do, maybe JeffDM is wrong about this. But it is well within the realms of possibility that he is correct.
Comments
MSoft's Zune music store offers buying/rental options, plus a ton of other features that iPods don't have. But nobody seems to want Zunes, anyway. Because all of those options lead to confusion. Some tracks can be burned to CD, some can't. Some will "expire" sometime in the future, others won't. Who wants to keep track of all that? What could be worse than firing up the MP3 player, only to find that the song you have a jones for suddenly blew up?
The iTMS is successful for one reason only. It just plain works. It offers a better buying experience, period. Adding rentals, or even subscriptions to the mix would have to be done very carefully to avoid ruining this experience.
I had a subscription to Audible.com for a while. And I liked it. But I dropped it eventually because there would inevitably be those few months where I didn't find any books I wanted, and then I felt like I was paying for nothing (even though I had gotten books cheaper other months). The same problem exists with Netflix. Once in a while I get too busy to watch a movie that I get for three weeks or so. And then I realize that I just paid $15 to watch that movie once, when I could have bought it at Target for $12.
I don't agree that there's no market for buying movies. The DVD sales business has been doing fine for years now, despite rental being available. Not everyone buys movies, but enough people do for Apple and the studios to make a lot of money. I agree that the quality must improve, and adding the special features would be a good way to increase sales. But I don't think that adding a rental, or even a subscription, option is by any means a "do or die" proposition for Apple. I think they're just fine for now with purchase only.
You are exactly right. Most of the people here who are opposed to a music rental model seems to assume it would be the only option. If Apple brings out a subscription model for music, I assume it would be in addition to the current song/album model.
Bingo! Its not an 'either-or' thing. If Apple offered subscriptions, it would be alongside its current purchase model, it wouldn't replace it.
And it would kill the Zune's last hope ('FREE ZUNE if you sign up for a 2 year subscription', yadda yadda yadda) stone cold dead. I myself would never subscribe, but I hope that Apple does offer it as an option.
.
CNN = billions of dollars in fake news!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
As opposed to what... FOX, and its 'unfair and unbalanced' news?
CNN does annoy me sometimes, but overall they seem to be one of the better TV news sources. Of course, you're better off reading the Washington Post or NY Times online, and/or subscribing to the Wall Street Journal and The Economist.
They all do a great job, and you get a nice mix of conservative and liberal viewpoints as well (NYT is quite liberal, WSJ is extremely conservative, for example).
.
Get off your high horse you idiot.
Idiot, eh? Suddenly your post doesn't seem like worthwhile reading. I'm reporting you too.
Do you think that maybe your iPod has an older firmware version than the one JeffDM is talking about?
Well being a 2G it obviously does, but I have the latest 2G firmware update on it. Fairplay does nothing on an iPod other than check to see if a key is stored. The key uploaded on the day the song was last authorized. That's all. iPods were made as slaves to iTunes as far as Fairplay goes, as long as the copy of iTunes that did the last sync is authorized the iPod has a valid key. There is no ability to timeout, no need to. There hasn't been for 7 years.
I am slightly amazed to now hear this supposedly on an iPod several weeks after the first reports of exactly this happening to people with Zunes that do have the timeout built in to service the subscription/rental functionality.
For the last word see this Apple iPod Authorization Page
Do I need to authorize my iPods?
No, you do not need to authorize your iPods. Your purchased music needs to be authorized on your computer before you copy it to your iPod. For more information on copying and playing your purchased music on your iPod, check out our iPod FAQ.
Fairplay does nothing on an iPod other than check to see if a key is stored.
Well, it then has to use that key to decrypt the song and play it.
as long as the copy of iTunes that did the last sync is authorized the iPod has a valid key. There is no ability to timeout, no need to.
We seem to have some evidence to the contrary. Perhaps JeffDM is mistaken, perhaps he isn't. I can't say for myself, because I've removed the DRM from all my iTunes downloads.
Your suggestion that "there is no ability to timeout" is rather absurd. It is pathetically easy for an iPod to know how long it has been since it was last synched to a computer, and to refuse to play protected songs after a timeout period.
For the last word see this Apple iPod Authorization Page
I fail to see how that is a "last word" on the matter. This has nothing to do with "authorising" (as in, having to enter iTunes Store passwords and the like) an iPod. It has to do with later versions of the iPod firmware ceasing to play protected content if it hasn't been connected to a computer for a while. I'm not saying that they definitely do, maybe JeffDM is wrong about this. But it is well within the realms of possibility that he is correct.