Apple unlikely to unveil iTunes subscription service Tuesday

Music industry insiders are buzzing about the press gathering Apple is hosting on Tuesday. The invitation shows a dancing man wearing an iPod and the slogan shouts, "Let's Rock."

Sure, this suggests that Apple is gearing up for a music announcement. The trouble is, nobody in music appears to know anything about it. My sources say that they don't expect Apple to announce anything to do with music content, and they are sure Apple won't be rolling out an iTunes music subscription service.

Such a service has been rumored for some time but Apple still only has licenses with the major labels to offer digital downloads, sources said.

This means of course that the rumor skittering around about iTunes offering a social-networking service similar to iMeem or Last.fm may be bunk as well. Apple would have had to cut licensing deals for things like free streaming music and this hasn't happened either.

Most people that I talked to connected with digital music are guessing that Apple's announcement will focus on iPods. But again, they don't know for sure.

[Comentarista]

Apple has been giving away iPods to students and teachers buying computers. The last time they did this, new iPods came out shortly afterwards. I'd expect an iPod announcement soon.

[iertry]

its gonna be a new slim nano focused on video. A refreshed ipod touch, maybe to look like the iphone 3g with software 2.1 on it. There will also be iTunes 8.0 (i dont know what they could add but im sure itll be good). As regards to the social networking stuff it looks pretty possible (maybe not with the streaming) but they've started rolling out the 'Just For You' thing (well I've only recently noticed it) so who knows. It's Apple; they'll surprise us.

[masterz13]

You hit the nail with the hammer. Thats exactly what they had. And sadly thats all.

[Boomstickedition]

Anything they would add to the bloatware that is known as itunes can't be good.

[jfrdricks]

Come on Apple, get with the times, Rhapsody has proven to be highly successful with subscription music. I would buy an Ipod Touch or Iphone in a heartbeat if you offered an all you can eat subscription model.

[joetesta70]

Subscription is the way to go - when that happens I'll buy an iPod....

[wyly295]

I have a Napster subscription and love it. The iPod is a nice piece of hardware, but irrlevant as far as I'm concerned. Subscription music is the only way to go in the digital age.

[maneeshpan1]

Steve Jobs has himself always maintained music subscriptions don't make sense. The majority of people want to own their music not rent it. People listen to their music thousands and sometimes millions of times over and over again they like to do so and it makes sense. Steve Jobs said when launching iTunes movie rentals though its different with movies. Most people watch a movie only 2 or 3 times and are more inclined to rent movies than buy them. I agree with him on that. I don't want to subscribe to music. I don't want to risk if one month I don't pay the monthly subscription bill the music I downloaded stops working or gets deleted. To discover new music I rely on the radio. Can listen to regular terrestrial radio, satellite radio, or even Internet radio. Only the record labels and the companies that start music subscription services see the value in them.

A number of music subscription services that have failed have folded recently. Look no further than the Virgin Media music subscription service folding, Yahoo folding its music subscription service, AOL folding their music subscription service etc. Only a few music subscription services remain. Most of the companies who folded subscription services now suggest their subscribers turn to RealNetwork's Rhapsody service, Napster 2 Go or Microsoft's Zune subscription service which all are still running.

THe RIAA wants music subscriptions and more DRM to lock-in users and eliminate fair use completely.

I support the existing Apple iTunes/iPod/iPhone/Apple TV model. It has done well and will continue to do so. When Steve Jobs opposed doing online video downloads the market just wasn't there and the quality was not good enough, then it did and Apple entered that market. However, even now music subscriptions just don't fit. Sure Nokia also has their Comes with Music subscription service and Nokia Music Store but the subscription front doesn't make sense.