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Apple Is Unlikely to Offer Unlimited Music, But If It Did...

Competitors cry monopoly, but consumers seem enthusiastic

By Laila Weir,  Newser User

Posted Mar 24, 2008 10:51 AM CDT

(Newser) – Don’t expect a subscription music service bundled with iPods anytime soon: that’s the consensus emerging from the news flurry since last week’s report Apple was considering such a move. Still, the flurry made two things clear, declares Nate Anderson in Ars Technica: Apple would need to tread carefully to avoid antitrust complications if it did go there, and consumers finally seem ready to “rent” music.

If that music is from Apple and if it includes anytime, anywhere access, that is—making the iPhone the ideal subscription platform. “This is the sort of value proposition that competitors haven't been able to match: the biggest music store combined with the hottest device combined with all the music you want combined with anywhere access,” writes Anderson.

A customer tries out an Apple iPhone at an Apple store in Palo Alto, Calif., Oct. 19, 2007.
A customer tries out an Apple iPhone at an Apple store in Palo Alto, Calif., Oct. 19, 2007.   (AP Photo)
Advertisement for the Apple iPod Nano on display at an Apple store in Palo Alto, Calif., in this Oct. 19, 2007, file photo.
Advertisement for the Apple iPod Nano on display at an Apple store in Palo Alto, Calif., in this Oct. 19, 2007, file photo.   (AP Photo)
Apple CEO Steve Jobs gestures in front of an image of the new iPhone during a news conference in Cupertino, Calif., in this March 6, 2008, file photo.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs gestures in front of an image of the new iPhone during a news conference in Cupertino, Calif., in this March 6, 2008, file photo.   (AP Photo)
Apple CEO Steve Jobs shows off the new iPhone at the MacWorld Conference & Expo in San Francisco, in this Jan. 9, 2007 file photo.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs shows off the new iPhone at the MacWorld Conference & Expo in San Francisco, in this Jan. 9, 2007 file photo.   (AP Photo)
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