It seems inevitable that consumers everywhere will eventually demand ubiquitous on-demand mobile streams, whether from Spotify or someone else, making ownership of music less popular and iTunes therefore less important. And in that respect, Apple’s decade of investment in music and current domination of the online music world may become an Achilles’ heel, as Android’s openness and neutrality give it greater flexibility than Apple’s closed system to offer consumers what they want as alternatives arise.

Decius:

Steve Jobs is dead wrong about subscription based services.

Fortune Magazine:

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

Larry Lessig:

Over time, more and more people will opt to pay for music subscription services.

From last month:

Right before Apple finally implemented variable pricing in iTunes it wasn't hard for many to predict that it would backfire badly on the major record labels as they tried to jack up prices. So, it should come as little surprise to find out those predictions appear to be entirely accurate.

Tim Arango, from February:

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.

In Music, Apple’s Strength Becomes a Vulnerability