Apple Not Keen On Subscription Market

And may not ever enter it, according to this story, unless one of its rivals comes up with a way to make subscriptions mainstream.

According to the story, earlier this summer, soon after Yahoo’s announcement of its Music Unlimited subscription service, Apple wondered about a subscription service. One of the label executives said Apple was concerned about what e-tailer Amazon.com or Google might do in this area. But, says the source in this story, Apple seemed unlikely to make a move until a rival began forging inroads into its music empire.

And that hasn’t happened in any big way: So far, only 2 million-or-so people have signed up for offerings such as RealNetworks’ Rhapsody service or one from Napster, and Yahoo’s new service hasn’t made too many inroads either.

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