The Industry Standard - Apple announces subscription service for iTunes - Comments

Apple Let's Rock is done. No

David Kuan — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 14:06:20 -0400

Apple Let's Rock is done. No mention of this. This is looking good for judgement.

Apple event going on now -

Eric Hill113600 — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 13:39:20 -0400

Apple event going on now - no word on this at all.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-102

David Kuan — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 11:47:26 -0400

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10031812-93.html
http://news.yahoo.com/s/cnet/20080903/tc_cnet/8301102331003181293
http://www.aspnews.com/news/article.php/3766936
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08/09/03/no_subscription_itunes_at_...

NO

steveballmer — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 12:37:10 -0400

NO WAY!

http://fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com

@Jesse, interesting point of

Eric Hill113600 — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 22:44:03 -0400

@Jesse, interesting point of view. While the "wish list" does seem a bit unworthy of a news event, in my mind the iTunes Unlimited piece alone fills a lot of the gaps. Apple insinuated recently that the Apple event in September would be a big move for them strategically, but ultimately would make them lose money in the short-term. No other rumor (Macbook tablets, Apple TV upgrades, etc.) seem to even come close to that unless you believe that they are going to slash the price of the iPod touch dramatically just to increase market share.

The subscription model definitely sounds interesting, but personally when I buy music i like to keep it for as long as the storage medium will last. (And, frankly, the MP3 store over at Amazon is generally about $1-2 cheaper per album than iTunes, yet integrates with iTunes really nicely.)

If I want "high quality" I go for a CD.

The anonymously submitted

Jesse Janowiak — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 22:11:37 -0400

The anonymously submitted "list of announcements" sounds more like a wish list than a legitimate leak. While an unlimited music subscription service would certainly warrant a special event, it seems unlikely that the decidedly un-sexy iPhone updates would be lumped together into the same announcement. This tipster fails my credulity test.

Apple announces subscription service for iTunes

Eric Hill — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 14:12:48 -0400

Judgment on September 9, 2008: The special Apple event, "Let's Rock" was today. The rumors of iTunes offering a subscription based model did not materialize, which the community correctly predicted. Judged at 0%. -- The Industry Standard

Original Prediction: There have been rumors for some time swirling around Apple offering an unlimited music subscription via iTunes.

Today, an anonymous tipster passed an interesting note over to TUAW.com today regarding the iTunes Unlimited rumors, which fills in much of the supposed data points.

"His take on iTunes Unlimited goes as such: For just $129.99 (or $179.99 bundled with MobileMe, or $99 for current MobileMe subscriptions), you would buy unlimited music access for one year."

And another tipster (probably the same one) shared the entire list of announcements for the special Apple event in late September with MacDailyNews.

This is a prediction that Apple will announce a new subscription-based model for iTunes at the special Apple event in late September. This prediction will be judged once the event occurs, and the news is reported in the mainstream media. Bets close on September 26, 2008, unless Apple's announcements come earlier.