Jeremy wrote:
] Perhaps your self-assessment is correct -- only you can know.
] But to my view, it seems contrary to fact to conclude that
] subscriptions services are somehow inferior to those with
] pay-per-use business models.

[ I guess i wasn't so much discounting subscriptions as a business model in all venues. I certainly agree that it's a widely used and often successful method. Businesses love it because it's guaranteed revenue, revenue they can count on month to month. People like them, when they do, because they recive a regular and consistent service. Mostly, I'm just turned off to them in this particular context. I don't care to subscribe to music, because I prefer to own something, rather than just pay usage fees for an impermanent access to whatever's available at the moment. That's why I call it snobbery, because I have precise desires for how I consume music that differ from other services. I'm mildly overstating the issue by using a word that people consider negative... i don't take it that way. Most people are snobs about things they like a lot or spend a lot of time with... I'm not a High Fidelity level snob, or anything...

That being said, I'm about to cancel cable, downgrade phone service and ditch some of the other monthly costs that eat into my bank account -- subscriptions have a nasty tendency to become assumed costs, so I try to be careful that I'm really getting what I'm paying for (i.e., i don't watch $50 worth of tv a month).

I'm sure for lots of people, the subscription model is great, even for music, I'm just not one of them. -k]

RE: RealNetworks Seeks a Musical Alliance With Apple (or Else!)