(Via Ars Technica) BusinessWeek reports that Universal Music is looking to compete with the Apple iTunes music store by offering a music subscription service called Total Music. From the reports, it seems that Universal is looking to explore different business models, such as using hardware makers or cell carriers to subsidise the subscription fee, and allowing the user to download unlimited amounts of music. It appears that affiliated companies would have Total Music offered as a bundle with their product, increasing the value of the product (and possibly the price) and moving more units.

I would like to know more about how the products and the subscription service would be priced in Australia and what part DRM would play (preferably no part). I would also be interested in finding out if the subscription service would be a service in its own right- or only available with certain products. It seems that there is some interesting potential here for reviving music sales and a very real threat to Apple if this gets off the ground.

Labels: abi, business models