Apple’s iTunes Store gave labels much-needed succor after its launch in 2003, slowing down big losses by replicating physical’s per-track purchase paradigm in digital.
But now, even after many such services have abandoned copy locks, growth in downloads has largely flatlined, or even worse.
The new promised land lays in switching mindset from individual track purchases, to purchasing access. They call it the celestial jukebox, or music like water, but you might call it music like cable TV — as many songs as you can consume, for a monthly fee.
“By now, the download sector should have hit hockey stick growth,” Forrester research director Mark Mulligan tells us. “Access-based services have long been part of the digital music map, now they