In interviews, several high-level music executives said they operated in fear of Apple’s removing a label’s products from the iTunes store.

One result of the dicey relationship is the increasing search by the music industry for a future in which Apple is not so dominant. Many executives say they believe the future of music buying is over the mobile phone, not from buying individual songs but by paying a monthly subscription fee to hear a vast database of music.

Steve Jobs, in 2003:

"We told the record companies the music subscription services they were pushing were going to fail. People don't want to buy their music as a subscription."

From April 2004:

Subscription services have the potential to change the way you think about music. Not everyone is ready to face that possibility.

From April 2004:

Lessig asserts that over time, more and more people will opt to pay for music subscription services.

From February 2007:

Rhapsody, not iTunes, in my opinion, is the future of music.

From September 2007:

Rick Rubin says that the future of the industry is a subscription model.

From last month:

The trick is to make people think that a certain paradigm is inevitable, and they had better give in.