Apple To Do Subscritption Music? Huh?

According to the Financial Times is reporting that Apple is in talks with the Big 4 about giving users total access to music via a subscription service. It seems as though this would work after purchasing a special iPod or iPhone (potentially for a $100 premium over current prices) for the ability to download music for one year without paying for it. Nothing is final, but this 'rumor' has actually been confirmed, which is nice for a change.

Now, this is something I've wanted for a long time and would be somewhat excited to see come to fruition. However, I agree with my good friend MG Sielger over at Venture Beat. While it is something that people could enjoy and be asking for, the way it is set up seems overly complicated, especially for Apple. Plus, as MG says, why would you want to fix the system they have which isn't even close to broken, or even bruised for that matter. Selling songs for 99 cents is what has made the iPod so powerful (yes, the iPod) as it has cause people to come out in droves to purchase the portable music players.

Personally, I don't see this taking off. iPods are not the cheapest thing and lots of people already have them. With iPod sales slowing, adding $100 to that price isn't exactly going to boost sales. The model doesn't seem to fit with me and, frankly, I'm surprised that the labels are going along with it as well. Although, I suppose that getting more of your music "sold" onto the biggest selling music player and store is always a good thing to be a part of. We'll just have to wait and see for this one...

Photo by Flickr user: nebarnix.

facbookTunes? Maybe...

It appears as though Facebook, and it's creepy uncle Myspace, are both attempting to woo the big four (Sony BMG, Universal, Warner, EMI) into deals to allow them to either sell or stream (or both and more) music from their respective social networks to the masses. A potentially huge deal for both ends, it has the potential to shake up iTunes, if not just a little.

According to Mike Sachoff over at WebProNews, the discussions are in the preliminary stage, but executives have dished out a few details: services could include (though not limited to) ad-supported free streaming music as well as mp3s available for download for a fee. However, before anything gets settled on the myspace front, that tiny little lawsuit between them and Universal, you know, the one where Universal claims that mypsace is aiding users in uploading/converting Universal's and allowing them to "stream" for free on the user's personalized pages, would have to be settled.

This could be a huge deal, if either or both go through, as the user count for each is around 65 million and 110 million users for facebook and myspace, respectively. With that kind of massive amount of users, if even 10% of them use the proposed services (which is a gross underestimate), both parties are bound to make a fair amount of coin. This also could be a potential threat to iTunes as it seems as though it may be the first genuine digital competitor for the online giant. If the deal could ensure that songs downloaded would be iTunes/iPod/iPhone compatible, then Apple could have a pesky, nagging little foe in it's virtually competitor-less online world.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user: pshab.

Copyright Issues? In China? Naaa

China is known for creating fake everything, from purses to bootleg movies to even cars. It also has a serious pirating issue with music. According to an article in Forbes, The Music Copy Right Society and R2G (who hold 80% of the musical copyright in China) are taking the search engine Baidu.com to court over such matters. The claim is that Baidu.com is using back-doors and buried websites (that it created) that steam music as well as offer it for download for free to attract people to use their search engine and to profit directly from these illegal websites.

This isn't the first time that there have been court cases involving copyright issues in China. A case, won by the big three (Sony BMG, Warner, Universal) this past December, stated that Yahoo China was found guilty of mass copyright infringements (though Yahoo yet to comply and are being sued because of this). Further, the big three also filed virtually the same suit that MCRS and R2G are filing against Baidu.com in February.

According to David Moser, a copyright lawyer, professor, and author who annually takes his students to China in order to study the culture and witness the piracy and bootlegging first hand the piracy in China is worse than it sounds, and I tend to agree. This issue will only continue to get worse until either the Chinese government steps in to actually do something about the ramped piracy (i.e. enforce the laws and trade agreements made), or someone figures out how to financially "punish" companies that allow/promote piracy because it's clear that even with the ability to legally download music for a small fee, the Chinese want it for free; and, as we all know, if someone wants to get something digital for free, regardless of the country, they're going to get it.

On a side not, click here for some fun fake Chinese rip-offs.