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David Young
dyoung@greeleytribune.com
March 24, 2008

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Buy a bigger hard drive and strap on your headphones, because iTunes might open up its entire library for download.

The Financial Times recently reported that Apple Inc. is in talks with major record companies to offer its entire iTunes library to users for a premium on iPod/iPhone devices or monthly/annual fee.

Apple has reportedly offered executives $20 per device, far lower than the $80 Nokia is supposedly offering. The article also reports that iTunes users would be willing to pay $100 premium or an $8 monthly subscription fee.

The unlimited download model is a dream for iPod owners who currently must pay either 99 cents per song, or $10 per album.

Whether or not the report is true, the idea of unfettered access to iTunes millions of songs is an exciting proposition.

Other music download sites, such as Napster, already operate on the subscription basis, which provides a steady income rather than sporadic purchases here and there.

The reason this appealing music model may likely never become a reality is that it would virtually kill traditional record sales.

iTunes pick and choose songs style has already made record executives more than a bit uneasy, and taken a bite out of big corporate music stores like Virgin Megastores.

To open up the rest of its catalog would give the world’s preeminent music download store a fierce edge.

In a recent article in The Guardian , David Pakman, chief executive of eMusic, calls the move monopolist. And Pakman has a good point.

In essence iPod, which dominates the portable mp3 player market, would bundle with iTunes, which dominates the music download store market, and eliminate any other options for users.

Perhaps Steve Jobs and Bill Gates have more in common than we think.