Stars Are Aligning for Subscription Music

From Peter Burrows, BusinessWeek:

For years, Steve Jobs has insisted that people want to own their music. And thanks in part to the iPod's near-monopoly, selling songs for 99 cents a pop has become the prevailing business model. Meanwhile, subscription services—renting access to millions of songs for a monthly fee—have gone almost nowhere.

Now, changing consumer behavior is giving subscription advocates new hope. Members of the Facebook Generation are bombarded with music recommendations every day, and don't necessarily want to pay a buck to check each one out. And since people are used to getting e-mail, appointments, and news feeds streamed to smartphones and other devices, many industry watchers assume they'll want the same for music. "If I can access whatever I want whenever I want," says Ted Cohen, who led EMI's digital music efforts and now runs an entertainment consultancy called TAG Strategic, "why do I need to own it?"

Link