Free downloads with your iPod Cool idea

Free downloads with your iPod Cool idea


Your next iPod may come with a special treat: All the music you can legally download, for free.

Apparently, Apple has been kicking around the idea of offering free access to its iTunes library to customers who spend more upfront for an iPod or iPhone for about a year. This week, the rumor exploded all over the news, suggesting that the company might be taking the idea more seriously than it's willing to let on. It would be a major strategic switch for Apple, which has rejected subscription services in the past. But even if the company opts to try this option, it's far from clear that Apple could get away with it.

Not because of the usual suspects, either: the major music labels have long pushed for Apple to offer a subscription service to iTunes, the country's second-largest music retailer. (Subscription services are steady revenue streams, unlike 99-cent one-hit wonders, and the strangled music industry is desperate for steady revenue streams right now.) There's a small but crucial base of consumers, too, who would be thrilled at the opportunity to fill up for an extra fee, even if it's a large one. This strategy could also offer the iPod a nice boost at a time when sales have fallen flat.

No, the big reason Apple probably won't be able to pull this feat off is a simpler one: its competitors. At the moment there are still a few brave companies willing to be in competition with iTunes, and some of them, like eMusic, sell downloading subscription services. But the iPod claims about 85 percent of the MP3 player market - packaging it together with iTunes sounds a bit like bundling. That means long, expensive antitrust lawsuits that Apple could be hard-pressed to win.

For now, Apple is keeping mum. But our hunch is that music fans shouldn't save their appetites for an iTunes buffet.