As some of you know, in recent days I finally decided that I had enough with the closed platform of Apple, and went to buy a Zune.
The main reason is that I want to have a device that can synch easily with a subscription music service.
It's been a long time that I say that subscription music service is the answer that the music companies should go with. Think about how much money you are paying every month for iTunes for music you purchased and you will see that for most people, paying 10 - 15 dollars a month for unlimited music is a much more reasonable option.
Whenever I talk about it, I get people saying that subscription music services were out there for along time, but they never caught up. But everyone are missing a key fact - 90+ percent of the market have iPods that can't be synched with any subscription music service out there! iPods and iPhones can work just with iTunes (exactly why i turned to Microsoft Zune).
So here is how the perfect music service should look like:
- Unlimited music access and download up to 3 computers and 3 devices for $12 - $15 a month.
- If you cancel your subscription you may download and keep music with value of 70% of the money you paid until now for the service. You have to be subscribed for at least 6 months in order to enjoy this offer.
- Ability to download and stream music from the music store over WI FI. Zune already allows you to synch from your computer over the air (Why the hell I can't do that with iTunes and the iPhone is a mystery). This basically gives you access to all the music you want wherever you go, and this is something everyone will be willing to pay for.
- When you synch you will also get ads for upcoming concerts for your favorite bands. You can buy tickets directly from the device. Same for buying T-Shirts and other merchandise for each one of your albums.
Besides the fact that this is actually a useful service for a lot of people, it should also encourage the music companies to go more and more digital and open, as they will get more revenue streams.
Now - Does this sound so difficult???
All the technologies that needed to do it are already there, the inly questions is who is going to pick up the glove first...