Steve Jobs says Customers don’t want Subscription Service
““Never say never, but customers don’t seem to be interested in it,” Jobs told Reuters in an interview after Apple reported blow-out quarterly results. “The subscription model has failed so far.”
One big thing between iTune and Zune MarketPlace is the subscription service. Paying $14.99 a month for all you want music sounds pretty good to me, as $15 a month really isnt that much. While Jobs thinks people like the iTunes model of paying 99cents per song. So the question I would love to know, but unfortunately could not dig up any info on it is how many users are opting for subscription service and how many just buy 1 song at a time from the Zune MarketPlace. If any one knows this info, would be great to know.
So next best thing is to put the question out there, do you guys prefer subscription service on the Zune MarketPlace? or do you just buy one song at a time as you go? Leave a comment and let us know.
Update: After reading over the comments from you guys, Xhyra brings up a really good point.
The problem I’ve noticed with the “subscription� aspect of Zune store is the fact that you have to keep paying that 15 bucks a month to play all those songs you bought the previous month. If you’re the type of person who constantly swaps out their music library then this wouldn’t seem so bad, but in the long run it will cost you a lot more money than to just simply buy the album itself.
I really thinks thats spot on. People like me, who usually change music all the time ( I usually do not like the same music I did say, 6 months ago) would really love the subscription service. While hard core music lovers who like to keep all their music would be best off with just buying the song.
So really in conclusion, both options are geared more towards different user types, and both seem to be doing a good job of pleasing them. Which is why I think Jobs is wrong here, assuming that every one is the one type of music fan, when there are not.
 So thanks Xhyra an every one else for the comments and letting us know what you think.
No way would I ever do the subscription! I buy music in spurts. In one month, I might buy a couple dozen songs, but then I might not buy anything for 3 or 4 months. There just isn’t that much new stuff that I want to buy coming out every month. Why pay the monthly?
Besides, last year for example, I bought a little over 90 songs = about $90.00. With the subscription model, you’re in for a minimum of $180 per year. I’d have to buy twice as much as I do now. The subscription model is overkill for anyone but the most ravenous music collector.
I use the subsrciption and I love it. I don’t want to pay a buck a song. If I try to fill up my Zune with 1000+ songs that would mean 1000+ bucks so thats why I like the subscription service.
most of the music i listen to is indie, so i have to buy the CD… but for the major stuff, i loved my Rhapsody subscription b4 buying the Zune (i haven’t used theirs yet)… it was a great way to get all my popular music and listening to new stuff without being obligated to buy anything. then the stuff that i REALLY wanted after listening, i’d just buy.
lj.
The problem I’ve noticed with the “subscription” aspect of Zune store is the fact that you hav to keep paying that 15 bucks a month to play all those songs you bought the previous month. If you’re the type of person who constantly swaps out their music library then this wouldn’t seem so bad, but in the long run it will cost you a lot more money than to just simply buy the album itself.
I love the subscription service. As soon as i got my zune i put about 2,500 songs on it. It would take me about 15 years of paying the subscription and never buying another song for it not to be cheaper than paying 99 cents a song.
I agree with Xhyra actually because you may get 100+ songs for 15 dollars but your gonna buy more than a month because yiour gonna listen to it longer than a month (at least i will) and if you buy a year or more it will be more than just paying for the song. or if you want to go cheap go to a used cd store where their cd’s are 8 dollars.
I really prefer to buy the songs one at a time, and get to keep them. Paying the subscription fee to basically rent the music doesn’t really make sense to me. I’d rather have good songs that I like and will get to keep, than a bunch of random songs I downloaded just because I could, and then have to lose them when I get tired of the subscription fee… One major thing that I wish Zune had, and almost makes me wish I got an iPod, is the purchasing movie/television episodes. If Zune has the video capability and the bigger screen, why aren’t they taking advantage of that? I’d gladly pay for that…
My first night I downloaded 4,000+ songs on the Zune marketplace, at .99 per song that would have cost me $4,000.00.
At $14.99 per month it would take me 20 years to spend the same $4000.
Subscription is by far the best option in my opinion.
I agree to what Kandyce said. Zune Marketplace should also sell movies and TV shows episode. I don’t really bother about that subscription thing cuz i get my music from different sources for free. I think selling movies and TV shows would be a great idea and they would also earn more profit because new movies comes every month….
[…] Original post by Cooper […]
I can’t listen to the same 90-100 songs over and over for an entire year. I need lots of music and good variety of music so a subscription makes sense for me. I view my Zune and subscription as a much better alternative to satellite radio. With the subscription I can download tons of music and switch it up whenever I like. With my Zune I also get the deep tracks that Satellite radio doesn’t play. I paid $13 a month for satellite and I still had to listen to what they wanted to play.
I definately don’t like subscription….or anything with DRM for that matter. I’ve bought a couple of songs from the old MusicMatch service and now that Yahoo has taken over, I won’t be suprised if I’m not able to play them before too long.
I would gladly pay 99 cents a song but only for music that I “own” not for music that depends on some service in order for me to play.
Sad to say, but I buy CDs…
I just bought a zune and i am not sure if i should get the subscription or not. i was just wondering if i got the subscription for 1 month then discontinued the next month would all of the songs stay on my zune? or would they all just disappear at the end of the month?
i have a question… if you but the subscription, then download like 3000 songs that month and discontinue the subscription the next month would all of the songs stay on my zune? or would they just disappear at the end of the month? if i didnt sync the zune again would the songs stay?
I am definitely for subscription service over buying songs because I like to sample a large amount of new music regularly and it would be too expensive to buy all the songs. I can’t tell if I will like a song until I listen too it so I like to be able to download entire albums and listen to them through a few times before keeping the songs I like. I also like a to listen to a large volume of music, so at 99 cents a song, 14.99 would only get me 15 songs a month which is way less than I would like to even keep. One thing I don’t like about the zune is that the marketplace is proprietary, meaning I have to get my songs from zune. I got a zune and when I found this out I returned it and got a creative labs Zen vision M even though I like the zune as a device slightly more. No I get my music for free at ruckus.com. If the zune let me do that I probably would have kept it and if Steve Jobs made that possible I would have definitely gotten an ipod instead because I like their devices the best, especially the iphone and ipod touch, although they need to come down in price even more before I would buy them.